Attorneys argued Tuesday that a woman convicted of murdering a child at a Lake County daycare center in 2009 should be granted clemency.
The lawyers for Melissa Calusinski called for clemency at a hearing in Springfield before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. The board will forward a recommendation to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who will decide whether to grant the petition.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office argued against clemency, saying there is no new evidence in the case.
Calusinski, 37, formerly of Carpentersville, is serving a 31-year sentence after she was convicted in 2011 for the murder of Benjamin Kingan, a 16-month-old from Deerfield. Authorities contend that Calusinski, then a 22-year-old teacher’s assistant at the Lincolnshire daycare center, threw the toddler to the floor and fractured his skull in January 2009.
Her attorneys, Kathleen Zellner and Paul DeLuca, have unsuccessfully sought to have Calusinski’s conviction vacated through the state’s post-conviction process. The clemency petition may be Calusinski’s final available legal remedy, unless new evidence were to come to light, DeLuca said Tuesday.
The attorneys contend that X-ray evidence in the case was handled improperly, and that police officers extracted a false confession from Calusinski after a lengthy interrogation. Calusinski, DeLuca said, also suffers from post-traumatic stress from a sexual assault almost 20 years ago.
Lake County prosecutors argued against a grant of clemency. In a statement, State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, who was elected in 2020 on a platform of reforming the process that led to some high-profile wrongful convictions in Lake County, said two cases that featured false confessions were overturned in the last two years. His office has a conviction integrity unit, Rinehart noted.
“Like all such units across the country, we are open to new evidence at any time. Under nationally accepted standards, that evidence can be carefully and collaboratively reviewed with independent experts,” Rinehart said. “In regards to Melissa Calusinski, no such new evidence has been presented to our conviction integrity unit or in this clemency process.”
DeLuca said that the review board should forward a recommendation to the governor in about 60 days. A spokesperson for the review board said the governor is not under any statutory deadline to decide once he receives the board’s input.
Calusinski, DeLuca said, is a model prisoner at the Logan Correctional Center. She is currently scheduled for parole in 2039.
