Most of the evidence Chester Weger wants DNA tests on in a quest to clear his name can be tested. Judge Michael C. Jansz today found the hairs, string, and cigarette butts in eight samples were preserved well enough with sufficient documentation of their place in the 61-year old Starved Rock murder case.
What won’t be tested may be fingernail scrapings from one of the three women who were killed in St. Louis Canyon in March 1960. The original documentation on the three test tubes’ contents doesn’t say for sure.
The lawyers on each side have a month to work out how tests will be done and report to the judge before testing starts. Attorney Celeste Stack, working for Weger, hopes to get some results by Christmas. Results showing no DNA from Weger wouldn’t automatically overturn his conviction. That would require more hearings during which prosecutors would argue that it just means other people had visited the canyon and that it doesn’t refute other evidence including Weger’s detailed confessions.
Weger took back his confessions within weeks and has said ever since that he was coerced into saying he beat 47-year old Frances Murphy, 50-year old Mildred Lindquist, and 50-year old Lillian Oetting to death while they were out on a hike. He got a sentence of life without parole, but a court ruling made him eligible to ask for parole in the 1970’s. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board granted Weger parole two years ago.
Chester Weger and family await Judge Michael C. Jansz’s ruling on evidence testing. Photo from Shaw Media via news media court pool.