A Sangamon County jury had little trouble last week reaching a conclusion in the murder retrial of Quincy lawyer and former Illini football captain Curt Lovelace, agreeing on a not-guilty verdict in about two hours.
That was no surprise. This case had reasonable doubt written all over it. Indeed, there was so much doubt as to raise serious questions about whether criminal charges should have been brought in the first place.
Expert witnesses disagreed about both the time and cause of the Feb. 14, 2006, death of 38-year-old Cory Lovelace. Just as important, two of the Lovelace children told authorities then and testified at two trials that they saw their ailing mother that morning before they went to school.