The Illinois Supreme Court cleared away what was left of the legal cloud over David Dowaliby, refusing Wednesday to review a court decision that had overturned his conviction.
The simple, one-sentence order by the high court puts an end to the legal battle, if not the public debate, over Dowaliby`s 1990 conviction on charges that he killed his 7-year-old daughter and then hid her body.
Last October a three-judge panel of the Illinois Appellate Court set aside the conviction, ruling the evidence against Dowaliby was insufficient.
The Supreme Court effectively upheld that decision by turning down an attempt by the Cook County state`s attorney`s office to appeal.
”I`m relieved it`s over,” said Dowaliby, 34, who works for a shelving construction company. He said he learned of the news from a radio report while eating lunch at a job site.
”I`m happy because of the cloud that`s been hanging over all of our heads,” he said. ”Now our lives can get back to normal. We can pick up the pieces.”
State`s Atty. Jack O`Malley said he continues to disagree with the Appellate Court`s opinion but said further appeals would be pointless.
Jaclyn Dowaliby was reported missing from her family`s home in south suburban Midlothian on Sept. 10, 1988.
Her decomposed body was found four days later in a weedy field behind a Blue Island apartment complex. A rope was wound around her neck.
Dowaliby and his wife, Cynthia, were charged with murder about two months later. The evidence against them was mostly circumstantial.
Cynthia Dowaliby was acquitted by Criminal Court Judge Richard Neville before the end of the trial. David Dowaliby was found guilty by jurors after three days of deliberations. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison but has been free on bond since November.
Dowaliby said he was ecstatic when he first heard news of the Supreme Court`s decision but not as elated as he was when he walked out of prison.
”That was the big one,” he said. ”To sit in prison was hard for me, and being free was great. Freedom is something I think too many people take for granted.”
Dowaliby, his wife and their two children live with relatives in an apartment in Tinley Park.
He said he still wants to find out what happened to Jaclyn, ”but right now we don`t know where to go.”
”The legal case is over, but the mystery is still there,” said Robert Byman, a lawyer at Jenner & Block, the law firm that represented Dowaliby during his appeal.
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O`Malley said his office will investigate if anyone contacts him or police with new information about Jaclyn`s death. But, he said, he doubts that will happen.
”I have no expectation that anything further is going to come on this case,” O`Malley told a news conference at the Daley Center.
Because the Appellate Court reversed the conviction instead of ordering a new trial, prosecutors are barred from bringing charges against Dowaliby in connection with his daughter`s death.
”He cannot be tried again. For this case, that`s the bottom line,”
O`Malley said.
He said his office asked the Supreme Court to take the case because he felt it was his duty to come to the defense of a jury verdict. The Appellate Court`s ruling ”sets a dangerous precedent,” he contended.
In written arguments filed with the Supreme Court, prosecutors said the three-judge panel improperly substituted its judgment for that of the jury.
The odds, though, were against O`Malley`s office. The Supreme Court is asked to review hundreds of Appellate Court decisions every year but routinely turns down all but a relatively few cases.
In yet another strange twist to what has been a bizarre story, one of the Appellate Court judges who participated in the panel`s decision held a press conference Wednesday to defend the ruling.
”It`s the function of the Appellate Court to prevent an injustice,”
said Judge Dom Rizzi. ”And when there is not sufficient evidence to even raise a question of fact for a criminal case to go to a jury, if there is a conviction, the Appellate Court would be shirking its responsibility if the conviction were not reversed.”
He called the prosecution of Dowaliby ”a waste of taxpayers` money.”
The Supreme Court also:
– Refused to overturn an Appellate Court ruling that ordered another new trial for a former chiropractor charged with fatally stabbing a friend in Park Ridge more than 10 years ago.
An appellate panel had reversed the conviction of Ralph Harbold, 52, citing prosecutor misconduct for a second time.
– Agreed to review an Appellate Court decision that for the first time recognized a legal concept called ”social host liability” for injuries resulting from underage drinking.
An appellate panel had reinstated civil litigation brought against a New Lenox couple by the parents of a 16-year-old Mokena girl killed in a 1987 car crash.
If upheld, the Appellate Court decision means adults who serve alcoholic beverages to teenagers at private parties could be required to pay damages for any injuries that result.