Brad Murphy press conference

David Hendricks had been behind bars more than six years when the Illinois Supreme Court overturned his conviction and left it up to McLean County prosecutors to determine whether he should face a re-trial.  The problem was the man who was then state’s attorney, Charles Reynard, had a conflict of interest, having represented two people of interest when a grand jury investigated the Hendricks family murders.  Asked to appoint a special prosecutor, the court turned to Brad Murphy, a co-prosecutor in the original trial who by now was an assistant United States Attorney.  Here’s audio from a news conference featuring Murphy and his boss, U.S. Attorney Bill Roberts.  Reporters had questions for Murphy but he declined to answer anything that related to the facts of the case or his personal opinions.  He did open up a bit when he was asked about the burden of the task ahead of him.