It has taken a lot of pressure for McLean county officials to drop an unjustified prosecution they should have dismissed long ago. There is no way to compensate Alan Beaman for thirteen years now gone from his life. Alan Beaman may have support from family and friends, but he has a long struggle ahead to regain his local reputation and community standing. His attorneys point out the difficulty he will also face attempting to obtain any small monetary compensation from the state. (excerpt from Rockford Register-Star article below).
Beaman won’t be retried in 1993 slaying
By Geri Nikolai
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Jan 29, 2009 @ 01:05 PM
Last update Jan 30, 2009 @ 06:28 AM
BLOOMINGTON —
A Rockford man who spent more than a decade in prison for a murder conviction overturned by the state Supreme Court last year can finally breathe easy.
Alan Beaman, found guilty in 1995 of murdering his ex-girlfriend, no longer faces a retrial. Today, a McLean County court agreed to a motion by the state’s attorney’s office to dismiss charges against Beaman.
That means Beaman, 36, is free of the case, said one of his attorneys, Karen Daniel, of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.
“As far as we’re concerned, for him, this is done,” Daniel said. “We hope he can relax and move on, to the extent that someone who’s been through what he’s been through can do that. He has no convictions and no charges.”
“This has been a long time coming,” Beaman told the Register Star in a phone interview. “We were figuring they would eventually get around to doing it, but it’s nice that it happened today.”
Beaman said he will continue to work as a handyman and has toyed with the idea of returning to school, where he studied theater scenery and lighting, or looking for a job in that field.
“It’s nice to be able to enjoy this moment,” he said. “I’m not going to go chasing after anything else yet.
The best parts of freedom are the little things, like being able to take a walk, play with a pet or travel if he chooses, Beaman said. Many people in Rockford have welcomed him back, he said, although there are some exceptions he doesn’t want to talk about.
Apology sought
Beaman said he hasn’t yet given much thought to trying to get money for the years he was wrongfully imprisoned.
“It’s the kind of thing you need to sit down and think about and talk about before you decide,” he said. “I do think they should apologize, though.”
There was no apology today, just a press release from the McLean County state’s attorney office that murder charges were dismissed.
“The investigation into the death of Miss (Jennifer) Lockmiller will continue … All options for future prosecutions remain available,” the press release said.
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