From 1995: Aurora man wrongly convicted of murder is freed

Lionel Lane paced back and forth in his prison cell at the Pontiac Correctional Center Thursday night, unable to sleep. “I didn’t ever think the day would come,” the 34-year-old Lane said Friday as he walked out of Kane County Circuit Judge James T. Doyle’s courtroom in Geneva a free man. Authorities offered what amounts to an official “never mind,” Friday, overturning Lane’s February murder conviction and releasing the Aurora man from custody. He has been in prison for three months. Two other men now have been charged with the 1993 murder of elderly Aurora Township widow Virginia Johannessen, for which Lane was sentenced to 60 years in prison earlier this year. Woodridge resident Donald F. Lippert, 20, and his cousin Edward L. Tenney, a 35-year-old Aurora man, also are charged with the murder of 56-year-old dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis, who lived on the same street as Johannessen. It was Lippert’s alleged confession to the Johannessen murder that led to the strange scene in Doyle’s courtroom Friday, a scene that must be the recurring daydream of countless convicts. After stipulations by attorneys on both sides and a brief statement by Doyle, a tired-looking Lane had his handcuffs removed and walked out through the front door. “It feels great,” he said. Asked if he harbored bitterness about the guilty verdict and the three months he spent in prison, Lane said he does not. “I’m not holding any grudges,” he said. “I’m going to go home and get some sleep. I’ve been up all night.” Earlier in court Judge Doyle defended the judicial system, even though he acknowledged it had “failed” in Lane’s case. “Judges and juries have to make decisions based on the credibility of witnesses,” Doyle said. “It looks like in this particular instance we had a failure of the system.” Kane County Sheriff Ken Ramsey defended both the work of his department and that of the Kane County state’s attorney’s office. “We never felt we had a slam-dunk case,” he said of the evidence against Lane. “It was a circumstantial case. It was the best we had with the evidence we had at that time.” “We all try and do the best we can,” Ramsey said. Kane County Public Defender Dave Kliment also did not point the finger of blame at prosecutors. “They got enough evidence to convince a jury he was guilty,” Kliment said. “That tells you that sometimes the system does not work.” Kliment added, however, that the wrongful conviction of Lionel Lane is no reason to run screaming from the system of trial by jury. “It’s done by people,” he said. “It can’t be perfect if it’s done by people. But it’s the best we have.” Lane was found guilty of the Johannessen murder based largely on the testimony of a former girlfriend and another man who each said Lane confessed the killing.