Town of Normal approves $5.4M settlement with wrongfully imprisoned Rockford man Alan Beaman

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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A Rockford man who spent more than 13 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit has reached a $5.4 million settlement in his lawsuit against the Town of Normal.

The Normal Town Council voted unanimously Monday night to settle the lawsuit with Alan Beaman, who was convicted in the Aug. 25, 1993, killing of Jennifer Lockmiller in Normal. Evidence later proved he was 130 miles away in Rockford at the time.

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The board did not discuss the settlement before the vote, but a packet of information included with the council agenda said the town admits no wrongdoing and “and fully stands behind the investigation and actions of its officers.”

“There are unique challenges associated with defending events that occurred nearly three decades ago,” the packet states. “The proposed settlement mitigates any risk of an excess verdict and protects the municipality from any excess verdict where damages could far exceed insurance coverage. ”

Beaman, who lives in Rockford with his wife and two daughters, said he could not comment on the settlement.

His lawyers told 25 News in central Illinois that even with a favorable verdict he would have likely had to endure more appeals and delays in seeing a conclusion to the case.

They said the settlement is welcome, but “hardly sufficient to compensate Alan Beaman and his family for their suffering brought on by Alan’s 13 years of wrongful incarceration.”

In a 2021 interview with the Rock River Current, Beaman had said the suit was a “quest for accountability.” His case was expected to go forward for trial later this month.

“Despite an irrefutable alibi, the complete absence of forensic evidence, DNA analysis excluding Mr. Beaman as the perpetrator and official recognition by the court and the governor of Alan’s innocence, the outcome following a trial for damages can never be certain,” Locke Bowman and Jeffrey Urdangen, attorneys with the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University, said in a statement.

Beaman was a 22-year-old theater major at Illinois Wesleyan University when he was convicted of strangling and stabbing Lockmiller in her Normal apartment. Beamon’s attorneys have said the prosecution had failed to disclose evidence on another suspect and it misled the jury on the timeline.

The Illinois Supreme Court overturned his conviction on May 22, 2008. He was released from prison about a month later. Prosecutors then dropped all charges against him on Jan. 29, 2009, and in 2013 he was granted a certificate of innocence.

It was during those proceedings that newly available DNA testing showed the presence of two unknown men in samples from the victim’s body and clothing.

Gov. Pat Quinn pardoned Beaman in January 2015 based on actual innocence.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas