A woman convicted of killing a toddler in one of Lake County’s most controversial murder cases has gone before a review board for a clemency hearing in a bid to be granted release.
Melissa Calusinski, 37, formerly of Carpentersville, earlier this year was awarded a clemency hearing before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (PRB). She has been held in the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
Calusinski is serving a 31-year prison sentence after a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated battery of a child involving 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan.
The clemency hearing took place last Tuesday at Crowne Plaza Springfield in front of the review board.
Under Article 5, Section 12 of the Illinois Constitution, the governor possesses the power to pardon a convicted felon by granting them clemency.
“The Governor may grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses on such terms as he thinks proper. The manner of applying therefore may be regulated by law,” the Illinois Constitution says.
The process required representatives for Calusinski to explain in detail to the board why the prison sentence should be commuted.
The PRB will now make a recommendation to Governor J.B. Pritzker, who decides whether or not to grant clemency.
Calusinski’s representatives filed a clemency petition with Pritzker and the Lake County Circuit Court.
Court records show Calusinski’s defense attorney, Kathleen Zellner, filed the 337-page clemency petition on May 1.
The same packet was also sent via FedEx to Pritzker, Lake County Chief Circuit Court Judge Daniel Shanes and the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office on April 24, court records show.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart previously told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that his office received the clemency petition in May but was not notified about the hearing from the parole board until June 10.
He said that the state’s attorney’s office filed an objection to clemency and to the defense lawyers’ request for the governor to intervene.
“Since we received the clemency petition and the Notice, our office has been in communication with the Kingan family’s attorney,” Rinehart said in a statement last month.
“We will continue to offer them support during what must be a difficult time for them,” Rinehart added.
Following last week’s clemency hearing, the state’s attorney’s office told Lake and McHenry County Scanner in a statement that no new evidence has been presented that would lead to Calusinski’s innocence.
The state’s attorney’s office also said they have maintained a grant-funded conviction integrity unit since 2021.
“Like all such units across the country, we are open to new evidence at any time. Under nationally accepted standards, that evidence can be carefully and collaboratively reviewed with independent experts,” the statement said.
“In 2022 and 2023, new evidence led to two exonerations (both with false confessions). In regards to Melissa Calusinski, no such new evidence has been presented to our conviction integrity unit or in this clemency process,” the statement added.
The clemency petition filed by Calusinski’s attorney says that the PRB “can have no confidence in the evidence against Melissa Calusinski,” “can have no confidence in the process leading to Melissa Calusinski’s conviction,” and “can have no confidence in the justness of, or the continuing need for, Melissa Calusinski’s sentence.”
If Pritzker does not approve her bid for clemency, Calusinski will not be discharged from prison until her sentence ends on December 30, 2042.
The case of Melissa Calusinski is arguably one of the most controversial and high-profile criminal cases in Lake County history.
Calusinski was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated battery of a child following a jury trial in 2011.
She has so far been incarcerated for 15 years and six months for killing Kingan at the Minee Subee Daycare in the Park in Lincolnshire.
The daycare was ordered to close by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) following the incident.
Prosecutors said Calusinski was working as a full-time teacher’s assistant when she threw Kingan to the ground on January 14, 2009.
Calusinski, who was 22 at the time, was alone in the classroom with Kingan and seven other toddlers when she hurled him to the floor, killing him, police said.
Two days after Kingan’s death, Calusinski was questioned by police for over nine hours, at which time she made a video-recorded confession to throwing the toddler down.
She was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, paving the way for a two-week trial at the Lake County Courthouse that ended with a jury finding her guilty.
In the two video-recorded statements played at her trial, Calusinski said Benjamin was fussing as she carried him across the room, other children present were causing a commotion and she became overwhelmed and frustrated.
Calusinski’s defense attorneys made two main arguments during the trial: the confession she gave police was coerced and Kingan had a pre-existing head injury.
The defense argued that Calusinski’s confession to police was coerced because — after being locked in an interrogation room for nine hours — Calusinski thought she would be able to go home if she admitted to throwing the child down.
However, the jury ruled against Calusinski and Shanes sentenced her to 31 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) at a subsequent sentencing hearing.
Calusinski’s case was further popularized when Erin Moriarty first featured it on CBS News’ “48 Hours” in 2015.
After several years of appeals, Zellner, who is a well-known wrongful conviction defense attorney, filed the necessary paperwork to serve as Calusinski’s attorney.
Zellner filed a post-conviction petition in 2015, which was required to grant Calusinski a new trial on claims that new evidence was uncovered proving Kingan died of a pre-existing head injury.
Zellner claimed in those filings that legible x-rays, which were previously unavailable at Calusinski’s 2011 trial, were discovered showing Kingan had a pre-existing head injury and died of a chronic brain hemorrhage.
In that process, then-Lake County Coroner Dr. Thomas Rudd changed the cause of Kingan’s death from homicide to “undecided” on the 16-month-old’s death certificate.
Shanes ruled against Zellner’s argument in 2016, saying the new evidence that she discovered was the same evidence rejected by the jury at Calusinski’s first trial.
Calusinski’s appeal of the evidentiary hearing was denied.
Zellner has since filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court in hopes of transferring the case to federal jurisdiction.
That case still remains open, court records show.
The woman’s father, Paul Calusinski, has said that his daughter is innocent and has called for her release.
Multiple petitions on Change.org have been started over the years for Calusinski, with one gaining over 4,000 supporters.
Zellner’s clemency petition includes numerous letters from people nationwide asking Pritzker to grant clemency to Calusinski.
The PRB’s recommendations to the governor are confidential and are typically forwarded to the governor within 60 days following the hearing.
The governor is not under any deadline to respond to the petition. The board then notifies the petitioner of the governor’s determination once the decision is made.