The following story was published by Decatur Herald and Review on Feb. 22, 2024.
Michael K. Slover Jr., convicted of being part of a Decatur family plot to kill his ex-wife, is due to be paroled March 15 from Robinson Correctional Center.
He will have served just under 22 years of a 65-year sentence for the murder of 23-year-old Karyn Hearn Slover, whose dismembered body was found in Lake Shelbyville in January 1996...
...The Slovers latest attempt to upend their convictions is getting legal and scientific backup from the Illinois Innocence Project, which has a track record of using DNA analysis to torpedo guilty verdicts that its advocates say are unfounded.
Based at the University of Illinois in Springfield, it has assisted the Slovers in previous legal actions to attack the evidence used to convict them, so far without success.
Leanne Beyer is the staff attorney for the Innocence Project who is acting as counsel for Michael Slover Jr. and his mother. She would not comment on the record for this story, but offered the following statement from the Innocence Project: "The Illinois Innocence Project’s (IIP) clients Michael Slover Jr., Jeannette Slover and the late Michael Slover Sr. are innocent.