How and why does this despicable injustice keep happening in the State of Illinois?

• Prosecutorial misconduct...
• Police misconduct...
• Jailhouse informants...
• State’s key witnesses receiving deals...
• Reduce punishment in exchange for their false, fabricated testimony...
• Suspect DNA and Arson testing practice by Law Enforcement Labs...
• Prosecutor presenting false evidence...
• Police concealed the fact of missing evidence...
• Inexperienced Public Defenders...
• Inadequate Defense Investigators...

In 1996, Donnie was falsely convicted of two counts First-Degree Murder, aggravated Arson, Two counts concealment of a homicide. He was found eligible for, and sentenced to death under the double homicide provision of the Illinois statues. He was also sentenced consecutively of the Death Penalty to a consecutive prison term of 30 years for Aggravated Arson and five years for concealment of a homicide.

Evidence and Testimony from Trial and all official investigative reports to the present time are essentially as follows:

On Wednesday morning, January 13, 1993, the burned bodies of Donna Tompkins and her three-year-old daughter, Justine, were found on a pullout sofa bed after a fire had been extinguished in their Canton, Illinois apartment.

The Fulton County Coroner, R. Pavley´s opinion and conclusion was that no foul play was indicated... these were victims of a house fire. The bodies were transported to Memorial M.C in Springfield, IL for autopsy. Dr. Murphy, pathologist who conducted the autopsies, could not determine or discover a definite cause of death. Tests and x-rays showed no evidence of gunshot or bullet wounds, trauma, fractured bones, nor disease within these bodies. No soot or smoke residue had been found in the trachea of either victim. However, the tracheas were deep cherry red in color, signifying a high carbon monoxide level consistent with dying in a fire. The process of elimination reached the possibilities of asphyxiation by smothering or strangulation.

" Obviously, this is a rather highly conjectural and challangeable concept because of the no surface or deep tissue wounds, bruises, lacerations, etc. to the neck, mouth or nasal areas, or inside the trachea, larynx, or bronchi or the trachea bronchial tree."

However, Murphy concluded that the most likely cause of death could have been from some kind of asphyxiation, but he could not say this for certain because there is no evidence of it. He also concluded the victims were dead before the fire. His conclusion was based on the low levels of carbon monoxide gas in the blood streams and lack of soot in the tracheas of both victims. Both victims blood and nasal drug scans were negative, cyanide tests negative. Donna’s blood ethanol level was .054%; vitreous humor ethanol was .052%.

There was no evidence of sexual abuse to the victims. Murphy also tested for the presence of sperm in the body cavities of both victims. He was able to retrieve a few spermatozoa from the inside of the vaginal cavity of Donna’s remains.

"It is reasonable to conclude that intercourse occurred somewhere between 24 to 72 hours prior to death since the morphologic survival varying reports of spermatozoa. Basically, it would be unwise to make any hard statements in regards to the time when coitus occurred."

Arson investigators found two unconnected origins of this fire... the sofa bed in the living room where the bodies were found and the floor near the door to the apartment. Testing and investigations revealed indications of an intentionally set fire using flammable liquids, extremely hot, fast burning and intense fire that had burned only a short duration of time… two to twenty minutes before discovery, determined and confirmed by investigators. Fire debris sample testing revealed kerosene, gasoline and drinking whiskey had been poured on the victims and the surround areas of the two origins of fire.

Keto of A.T.F. stated that the found alcohol or drinking alcohol (ethanol) consistent with whiskey, specifically Canadian Mist, on all the samples tested. Kerosene, gasoline and whiskey all contain ethyl alcohol. No kerosene or gasoline containers were found at the fire scene. Broken portion of a Canadian Mist whiskey bottle was located by A.T.F. on top of the sofa bed, near the top o the sleeping area. Another broken portion of a Canadian Mist whiskey bottle with alcohol inside was located underneath the south side of the sofa bed. S.F.M. investigator Anderson found underneath the fire debris, on the floor just inside the door, pieces of glass from the window of the door…glass was slivered, clean, not heat crazed.

The fire was discovered at 9:34 a.m. by Donna’s boss, D. Haynes. Donna was his secretary at the National Bank of Canton, Illinois. Haynes had driven over to her apartment to check on her when she failed to appear for work that morning.
Getting no response to his knocks on the door, Haynes called the police.
Before they arrived, he attempted to open the door, noticed no heat on the door handle nor saw fire inside. He stated the drape still covered the window and he then removed the A/C from the kitchen window. Smoke rolled out and he then broke the window in the door, unlocked it, stepped into the room but could see nothing but a bright orange glow of fire. He then ran to the back of the apartment house, broke out a window to the back bedroom and climbed inside to check if anyone as in there. Choked by smoke, he got out. Police and firemen arrived at 9:36 a.m. Investigators found no forced entry had been made into the apartment, only from Haynes and firefighters breaking the glass in the door and windows.

Investigator Anderson found the information furnished by Haynes in the first interview inconsistent with the observations and findings at the fire scene.

Anderson’s opinion was that Haynes couldn’t have seen nor done some of these things. Haynes stated when he removed the air condition smoke rolled out. This window was approximately 18 to 24 inches above floor level. Smoke would remain at a consistent height throughout the residence. The A/C WAS no more than 24 inches from the floor. Haynes said he walked into the living room where he saw a glow of fire. If things were as he described, when he opened that door, he would have been knocked over by a cloud of smoke or blown out from a back draft. He would have had to be on his knees or crawling to have seen into that room, or would have been standing in fire if he had made entry.

Re-interviews of Haynes added some details, and left some details out. During the interview, Haynes broke out into a rash from his neck to his forehead, stating that he didn’t set the fire. Haynes also stated that maybe when he walked into the apartment he kicked over some kind of container with an aclerant in it.

Investigators at no time mentioned aclerants to Haynes and did not tell him the fire was just inside the door where he has indicated. Anderson’s problem with Haynes story is that every time he tells the story, he embellished it and/or made additions. His statement of what he found and did was impossible to have occurred the way he has explained it.

In the course of an 18-month investigation into the victims´ deaths, the police requested five men (suspects) to submit blood samples for DNA testing in comparison to the semen sample collected from Donna’s remains by Murphy: 1) Haynes, Donna’s boss; 2) Franciskovich, one of Donna’s current boyfriends; 3) J. Tompkins, Donna’s estranged husband; 4) T. Haynes, one of Donna’s ex-boyfriends; and 5) Donnie Bull, who police found had sold Donna the sofa bed. The police were given information that Donna and Bull had been "secretly dating."

Hahn, a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police received two vaginal swab samples from Donna’s remains, one from Murphy, one from Detective D. Ayers, and the blood samples from D. Haynes, R. Franciskovich, J. Tompkins and T. Haynes. Hahn identified the presence of semen from testing one swab, found that the semen had heads, no tails, equal amount of live and dead spermatozoa, an indication that the semen was deposited 24 to 72 hours, indicating time of intercourse. He then sent the four blood samples and other vaginal swab to the ISP, DNA lab in Springfield, Illinois.

Metzger, a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police DNA lab, found after running DNA testing on the four blood samples and semen sample from the vaginal swab, none of these samples matched. Later, the police obtained a court order to get blood samples from Bull for DNA testing in an unrelated Aggravated Battery case in March 1993, that Bull was arrested and being held in jail for. Hahn received Bull’s blood samples, did testing for the unrelated case and sent the sample to Metzger. After, he separately analyzed and ran DNA tests on Bull’s blood sample. Metzger compared (called open profile) Bull’s blood DNA test autorods (picture) to Donna’s vaginal swab sample and the other four men’s blood DNA autorods, and determined that they had matched. However, Bull’s blood sample DNA was never tested (run in the same test with the vaginal swab evidence as the four blood samples had been done.) The determination of this match was done by looking or comparing two photos to one another.

Investigators had found Donna’s Seiko watch and gold initial ring with "DJA" engraved on the top, located on the kitchen counter in the apartment. Later while Bull was incarcerated for the unrelated battery charge, police went to R. Hillmeyer´s home. Hillmeyer was a girlfriend of Bull’s where he had been staying only a short time before his arrest on the unrelated battery charge. Police asked Hillmeyer if they could search through Bull’s things… they did not have a search warrant and could not explain to Hillmeyer what they were looking for, only saying "Investigation into the deaths of Donna and Justine Tompkins. Anything that would show his involvement."

Hillmeyer signed a written consent to search her home... police made search of Bull’s things only. In the bedroom that Hillmeyer had previously shared with Bull, police found on the floor beside Bull’s dresser, in the corner, a closed solid black Irish Cream liquor box belonging to Bull, that he had made into a collection/piggy bank. Police opened the box and it contained coins, a key and some rings. Police took the two rings and the key, giving Hillmeyer a receipt for the three items. The key was found to have been to an old apartment of Bull’s. Police showed the ring to several of Donna’s friends, family and co-workers to see if anyone could identify them as belonging to Donna. J. Tompkins, Donna’s estranged husband, could not identify any of the rings as being Donna’s. A co-worker, Faulk, and Donna’s sisters, told the police that one of the rings (gold with white stone in the center with a red garnet on each side) looked similar to a ring that Donna was given by her mother, and had worn for years. Faulk was positive that the corner stone in Donna’s ring was an opal. Franciskovich told police that Donna wore a gold ring with a white center stone on her right hand, and that it had her mother’s initials on the inside of the band. T. Haynes told police the white stone ring looked similar to a ring that Donna wore. He also identified the initial ring, the one police had located in the apartment on the kitchen counter as belonging to Donna Tompkins.

Police received a 1990 family photo from J. Tompkins of the Tompkins family, showing Donna wearing a ring. Police took the photo to the Illinois State Police lab and requested the right hand ring area of Donna’s hand be blown up. They took the white stone ring and blown up photo to a jeweler (Reichert Jewelry) to see if the white stone ring was the same ring on Donna’s hand in the blown up photo. The jeweler stated they were consistent but could not say the two were the same 100%. He stated for sure that the white stone was not an opal and no initials were on the inside of the band. He had made several of the same rings himself that looked just like this one. Subsequently during Bull’s trial, Donna’s sisters, co-worker Faulk and T. Haynes much better ID´d the white stone ring which was found in Bull’s piggy bank as belonging to Donna than in their earlier police statements.

Shortly before Bull’s incarceration in the county jail on the unrelated case, one of Fulton County’s jailhouse snitches, Harold (Crow) Crosier had been arrested and charged with two counts of Aggravated Battery for the beating of his estranged wife and her sister. Also pending was the D.U.I, driving while license expired, and illegal transportation of alcohol charges. Bull’s arrival in jail, he was put in the same cellblock with Crosier. The first time Crosier talked to the police about Bull’s many alleged conversations with him, Crosier’s felony charges were reduced to all misdemeanors, his D.U.I, suspended license and illegal transportation of alcohol charges were all dismissed. He was also released from jail.

Crosier claimed in three police statements, and testified, that he had several conversations with Bull regarding Donna Tompkins. In one, Crosier claims that he and Bull were watching a program on TV about DNA. Afterwards Bull asked him about DNA and if it could show ho long sperm was present. He stated Bull then told him he had sex with Donna a couple of days before her death.

Next Crosier claims that Bull told him that he and a co-worker Mike, went over to Donna’s apartment after the fire, in the Wright´s Furniture truck, and saw an object laying in the yard. They crossed the barricade, walked into the yard of the residence and were stopped by a security police officer that made them leave. Testimony from police and security police indicated this story was false and the incident never even occurred.

Another claim by this Crosier was that Bull told him that Donna and Bull smoked marijuana and snorted cocaine together all the time. Donna’s blood and nasal drug test scans were all negative.

Crosier admitted to having being convicted in the past of armed violence, drug conspiracy, obstructing justice and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, and being an informant before, and also that some of his pending cases had been dismissed. So it turns out that most or all of Crosier’s statements and testimony are false and fabricated. However, Crosier never admitted, nor did the Prosecutor ever release the fact that Crosier received a deal for this testimony, but was court-ordered to tell the defense before trial.

Another Fulton County jailhouse snitch, Chris Chester, was serving time in I.O.D.C. for a reduced Armed Robbery conviction (deal for turning in others). In 1994, police arranged a transfer for Chester to a prison Bull was serving time in for the unrelated Aggravated Battery conviction. Police sent Chester, instructing him to get a confession from Bull to killing Donna and Justine Tompkins. Chester was put in a cell with Bull for only one day because the next day, when Bull was working or in school, Chester was out on the yard and a routine shakedown of that cell. Chester, at that time, was a gang member of a gang known as the Northsiders. During this shakedown, officers found hidden in Chester´s property a 9-inch home - made knife. Bull and Chester were put in separate segregation cells. Two days later Chester tried to send Bull a note but it was stopped and confiscated by officers. The note was Chester offering Bull $5´000 in cash to take the blame for the knife. The next day, Bull was released from segregation, disciplinary dismissed. Chester remains in segregation.

The same day Chester called Detective D. Ayers at the Canton Police Department. This conversation was recorded and written out in transcript. Chester´s first words to Ayers, "Hey, so you ready to go to the parole board for me or what?" Ayers´ replied laughing, "What did you do for me?" Chester tried two times to describe the details of his claim of Bull’s alleged confession.

From the recorded and transcript of their conversation...

Chester...I got it written down to... to make a long story short, he didn’t get there ’til midnight and she was already drunk. Okay. They started arguing. He sat on top of her and put his fingers over her mouth and nose, suffocated her. HE started panicking, wiped the fingerprints down, did the same thing to her daughter and, uh, wiped the fingerprints down. Thought he forgot something. He left, went to his car that was parked by the fuckin´ junkyard. Thought he forgot something went back and was afraid that you know some soil samples or something on his shoes or some shoe prints. That’s when he put the ashtray in the bed and set the place on fire and then left.

Ayers sighs. Uh, I don’t know here. Some of it ain’t exactly matching up, Chris.

Chester... That’s about well here, here’s what I... here’s what I wrote down. I´ll tell you exactly what I wrote down long pause hands over face suffocated her, arguing over habits and friends. Wants to stay, stop seeing him. Wants to see someone else. They start to argue. He starts shaking her, says he blacked out. Comes to, hands over her face. Panics. Wipes fingerprints off of everything. Went after and is wiping fingerprints. Did the same thing to the daughter . Starts worrying. Left early. Came back early in the morning. Thought he forgot something, Uh, put an ashtray in the bed to burn the place to make it look like an accident. Ran to car parked by junkyard. Said he was drunk. Slept in car because there was no other place he could stay for now, but had been in the house several times in the past. Met her by delivering couch from Wright´s Furniture. That’s how they met... when he delivered some furniture from Wright´s... uh... furniture store.

Ayers... A lot of this stuff... actually, I need some more stuff that wasn’t out in the paper and common knowledge. I need something that he says that pretty much only I know or the guys involved down here know.

The rest of the conversation is Chester telling Ayers, "Next time it’ll be perfect", and that the knife isn’t his. Ayer tells him "Uh, yea. I can’t do anything for you if you get in trouble down there, you know". Ayers tell Chester he will try to get you guys put back in the same cell so you can get some more stuff. Maybe you could make up some things, maybe he’ll talk about it, however, you need to do it.

Bull and Chester were never put back in the same cell or in contact at all. However, a month later Chester sends Ayers a letter with his third version of this alleged confession.

Chester´s testimony at Bull’s trial remained somewhat the same as the letter that he had sent to Ayers. He also stated he wasn’t getting any deals for his testimony. During cross-examination by Bull’s defense attorney, he only asked Chester about saying to Ayers, "Hey, so are you ready to got to the parole board for me or what?" Then he asked Chester about his past convictions. Bull’s attorney never asked Chester about all the changing versions that he had made in Bull’s alleged confession, or about the money he offered to Bull to take the blame for a knife that was found in his property while he was working as an agent for the state.

J. Day, Bull’s girlfriend’s mother, was questioned by police on 3/25/93 if she had seen Bull in ‘Hillmeyer´s car or other car on the morning of 1/13/93, day of the fire, during her driving her grand-children to school, just before 8 a.m. She describes her normal route and did not observe Hillmeyer´s car anywhere. Almost a year later on 1/27/94, police questioned Day again. This time she recalls seeing the car parked behind the Soldwedel Milk plant at 7:30 a.m. or 7:45 a.m. That’s near Tompkins apartment. At Bull’s trial, Day even described the location of the car and the way it was facing, as well as a completely different route than she took that morning.

D. Nell, a good friend of Bull’s, having known each other since kindergarten, was questioned by police on 3/26/93, about the activities of the night of 1/12/93. Nell describes the party at Bull and Hillmeyer´s house that evening. About 1:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., early morning of 1/13/93, Bull gave him a ride home in Hillmeyer´s car. Nell describes the route they took, only stop being at a gas station to get cigarettes. On 3/30/93, Nell was questioned again by police and stated the same as before. A year later, on 3/14/94, Special Agents picked Nell up and questioned him again in the back of the agent’s car in front of a friend’s house. Nell stated the same except added that Bull and him took beer with them when they left, rode around Canton for a while drinking beer. Bull drove slowly by Tompkins apartment two times. Each time Bull made remarks about how he would like to fuck Donna Tompkins. However, during Bull’s trial and on cross-examination by Defense, Nell stated that the agents were putting words in his mouth and he said what they wanted to hear. They were also calling him names, bothering him every day. Nell stated he made the statement because that’s what they wanted.

J. Wright testified that, while at a bar, Bull was talking to one of her girlfriends, K. Hammond. Wright said that she overheard their conversation. Hearing Bull say he "could kill somebody and get by with it, and not get caught". However, a detailing police report from Hammond of her and Bull’s conversation completely contradicted Wright´s testimony. Wright admitted that she and Hammond had been drinking alcoholic beverages that evening and that it was noisy in the bar. Defense Attorney did not tell the court about Hammond´s different version, failed to call Hammond as a defense witness, failed to call the Police officer who interviewed Hammond as a defense witness, and failed to even impeach Wright during her testimony with Hammond´s police report.

L. Knous, a housekeeper for the apartment right next door to Donna’s apartment, testified that on the morning of the fire, she arrived at 8:15 a.m.

She took the garbage out... that took her around the apartment house... and she didn’t see Bull or anyone, didn’t see or smell smoke, and never heard any noises from the other apartments. At 9:22 a.m. she saw Donna’s boss, Haynes, arrive, as she was outside putting her cleaning stuff into her car.

J. Shaffer testified that he drove past Donna’s apartment on the morning of the fire, about 9:15 a.m., on his way to pick up his wife, K. Shaffer who babysat Justine sometimes. He didn’t see Bull or anybody or anything unusual. At 9:35 a.m. the Shaffer´s drove back by Donna’s apartment and saw smoke. They also saw Donna’s boss, D. Haynes.

(To read more about the State’s version of this case, Direct Appeal, and the inadequate defense for Bull during the trial, please see PEOPLE v. BULL, 185 III.2d 179, 705 N.E: 2d 824 (1998.)

While Bull’s Direct Appeal was pending in the Illinois Supreme Court, Bull and governmental agencies received a five paged letter signed, "Sincerely, The Honest Police Officers of Canton Police Department", dated 8/1/98. The letter accused numerous City of Canton Officials of a list of misconduct over the last fifteen years. One of the allegations in the letter was about the concealment of missing evidence in the Bull murder case. The letter stated, "Evidence that was collected from one of the victims came up missing and wasn’t sent to a lab for testing and couldn’t be located before the trial". Det. Ayers and Det. Bowton were given written orders from Chief Elam that they were to conceal the fact that this evidence was missing. Could this evidence prove Donnie Bull did not commit the murders? The most despicable thing is Bull could be sitting on Death Row for a crime he didn’t commit.

State Police, FBI, State Prosecutor’s office did investigations into these allegations and determined with one exception, none of these allegations merited further review. The exception was that an item of evidence was missing in the Bull case, but was nut due to any negligence on Fulton County State’s Attorney Danner´s part. Case closed. (However, let us not forget the evidence is missing and the fact it was concealed by the Canton Police Department.) Since then Det. Ayers was fired for numerous civil rights violations. Elam had accused Ayers of writing the letter.

Bull’s Post-Conviction counsel and investigations have revealed that the two Fulton County snitches, Crosier and Chester, were offered and given deals by the Prosecutor and Police in exchange for their false testimony which was not turned over to the defense as the court ordered be done. Information indicates that right before Chester was to testify he was given some instructions by the Prosecutor on Bull’s alleged confession. And also to act out on the witness stand of how Bull allegedly puts his hands over the victims´ faces to show smothering because the Prosecution’s theory of the victims´ deaths by strangulation wasn’t working very well.

Post Conviction counsel sent an investigator to examine the ring (found in Bull’s property, allegedly belonging to Donna Tompkins.) Accompanied by the Court Clerk, the investigator took this ring to a jeweler who examined it, found that there were no initials inside the ring (as Franciskovich told the Police that Donna’s ring had her mother’s initials inside it.) The jeweler also indicated the ring did not appear to have been modified (as Donna’s sister testified that Donna’s ring had two red garnet stones added on.) Investigator took photos of the ring at various angles, also took photos of the family portrait (which Donna’s estranged husband had given the police.) These photos developed indicate that the ring found in Bull’s property isn’t Donna’s ring. Photos of the ring on Donna’s hand in the family portrait and the ring found in Bull’s property show the bands of these rings are distinctively different; the middle stones are shaped differently, one being oval shaped and the other a rounder shaped stone. Post-Conviction counsel is seeking for the Court to order macro-photography be done on the original items to conclusively prove these are two completely different rings.

Bull’s trial counsel failed to investigate and present various evidence that made an inadequate defense for Bull. When trial counsel was informed by their DNA expert that he was suspect of the State’s method of DNA testing in this case and did not Bull’s DNA found in the semen recovered from Donna’s remains, counsel should have requested independent DNA testing be done. And have independent microscopic experts to examine the vaginal swabs to characterize the semen’s density to show the time that intercourse occurred. Also he should have requested the test results of the hair samples found at the crime scene that did not match Bull’s hair samples. That is now being requested in Bull’s post-conviction petition.

Bull pleaded innocent in this case yet trial counsel never investigated or presented an alibi defense or let Bull testify. Bull made statements to the ‘police of his whereabouts on the night of 1/12/93 and to early morning hours of 1/13/93. Essentially, the last time he had ever seen Donna was two or three days before her death. That was the last time he had been with her (had sex with her.)

On the night of the 12^th, Bull had a big party at Hillmeyer´s house where he was staying. About 2:00 a.m. or later (being early morning hours of the 13^th) he borrowed Hillmeyer´s car to take Nell home. They took some beer with them, stopped to get cigarettes, and then went to Nell´s house. Parked in the back driveway of the alley and drank the beer. Bull stated the roads were very slippery, covered with ice and snow, and he was sliding around while driving Nell home. He left Nell´s and, on his way back to Hillmeyer´s, he was going a little fast when he went over the railroad tracks on Oak Street. He lost control over the car and went into a fishtail sliding, then slammed into a snow embankment on the side of the road. He backed over it and started on his way, when he noticed the car was pulling to one side. He stopped, got out and found that the front driver’s side tire had blown out. He pulled to the corner of Oak and second about two blocks up from Hillmeyer´s, and tried to fix the tire with the spare. However, two spares were also flat. The car jack slipped out and hit his leg. Bull got back into the car to get warm. He fell asleep and was woken up by some older man. It was light out, and he took one of the tires to USCO gas on 5^th, about three block’s away. Put fix-o-flat and some air into the tire. Went back to the car and put it on, knowing it might not hold. He then drove to Phillips 66, a repair station, about two miles across town. He then had the tire repaired and got an estimate on four used tires for the car, and receipt for the tire repair so he could explain to Hillmeyer what had happened.

When Bull arrived at Hillmeyer´s and, getting out of the car, he looked up the street toward Borks junkyard and saw smoke.

When he went into the house and was explaining to Hillmeyer about the car, they heard sirens. Bull told Hillmeyer and her mother he had seen smoke going across the road by Borks. Bull didn’t go to work that day because he was hung-over and had injured his leg. Later that day Bull went and had the used tires put on.

Hillmeyer gave testimony as a State’s witness that Bull did give her a receipt for the tire repair and the estimate for the four used tires that morning of the fire.

Reports and information a year later from employees at Phillip 66 was they could not recall now for sure if Bull was there that morning, but they cannot say he wasn’t. They said Bull had had repairs done there before and they do know him, however, they wouldn’t have any receipts now.

Other information was if Bull had repairs done in the morning, it would have had to have been after 8:30 a.m. because of their morning rush time, and to repair a tire on the car would have taken at least 35 to 45 minutes.

Arson investigators say the fire only burned two to twenty minutes. The fire was discovered at 9:34 a.m. by Haynes. Firefighters arrived at 9:36 a.m. How could Bull be at Phillips 66 after 8:30 a.m. having a tire repaired that would take at least 35 to 45 minutes, and then be at Donna Tompkins´ apartment house, allegedly killing two people, set a fire to cover it up at the same time the cleaning lady and Haynes are both there, without being seen by anybody? The times don’t add up. It would have been impossible. Trial counsel had all of this information and an alibi, but did not investigate or present it.

Post-Conviction counsel’s investigation into the time of death of Donna Tompkins was revealed when they sent Donna’s autopsy and lab reports to a toxicology lab to be examined by expert toxicologists which revealed that Donna died approximately one hour following her final consumption of an alcoholic beverage, based on Donna’s reported blood alcohol level of .054 % and vitreous alcohol level of .052 %. Also estimated by Donna’s body weight and blood alcohol level that she had approximately three alcoholic drinks in her system at the time of death. However, Donna’s phone records show that she was talking to Franciskovich on 1/12/93 at 9:35 p.m. Franciskovich stated that Donna told him she was drinking apple cider and Schnapps while she was talking to him. How long would it take to drink three drinks if one started 9:35 p.m. or before? Two or three hours. It is being estimated that Donna may have died around midnight or a short time after. Bull never even left Hillmeyer´s until 2:00 a.m. or later. It is being examined by experts and has been estimated that Donna Tompkins was dead before Bull left Hillmeyer´s.

Due to the inadequate investigation and defense by trial counsel, and the Prosecutorial and Police misconduct, another innocent man has been falsely convicted and wrongfully put on Illinois Death Row for a crime he did not commit.