Northwestern Blog: Police should open closed cases when new arrests are made

Claude McCollum is serving life in a Michigan prison for a 2005 murder he has always said he didn’t commit. McCollum may have a chance to prove his innocence in the months ahead, however, as another man, named Matthew Macon, was arrested in late August in connection with five other murders, which resemble the murder for which McCollum is serving time. In McCollum’s case, he was convicted despite evidence that biological material at the crime scene matched an unknown male and did not match McCollum. He was convicted partly based on admissions he made to police, involving how he could have committed the crime while sleepwalking. His relatives, and relatives of the victim, called this week for police in Lansing, Michigan, to reopen his case.

Lee Kronenberg, who was married to Carolyn Kronenberg (the victim in the murder for which McCollum was convicted), said … he wants to make sure the right person is held responsible for the killing, but until new information is brought to light, he supports the jury's decision.

"In the interest of justice, more information should be sought from Mr. Macon," he said. "The jury found (McCollum) guilty and I support the jury's decision. But I want justice."

Read the full story here

. (Detroit Free Press, 09/04/07)

Steven Drizin, the Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago,

writes today on his blog

that McCollum’s case has the hallmarks of a wrongful conviction. He goes on to say that police should reopen some closed conviction cases when they have evidence in a string of crimes, such as serial murders. A number of DNA exonerations – including those of

Jerry Frank Townsend

and

David Vasquez

– have come after police arrested serial killers.

Read Drizin's full post

.