Attorneys with the Center for Wrongful Convictions are asking the Peoria Circuit Court to give DNA evidence in a 35-year-old double murder case a new look with advanced technology.  Johnnie Lee Savory was 14 when he was arrested for killing James Robinson and Connie Cooper who were 14 and 19 respectively. Savory was released on parole in 2006. Attorney Steve Drizin the is legal director of the Center for Wrongful Convictions. He says the DNA in Savory’s case deserves a closer look with the latest technology:

Drizin:  Its been a 35-year-long struggle. Doctor Martin Luther King said the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. And it’s time. It’s time here in Peoria for it to bend toward justice in the case of Johnnie Lee Savory.

A similar legal request in 1998 was opposed by the state’s attorney and refused by the courts on the grounds DNA technology at that time could not conclusively establish his innocence. Attorneys for Savory further say three chief witnesses against Savory have since recanted testimony.