Ruling due in May for man who stands to gain about $200,000 from state after being cleared in 1994 fatal Naperville fire

March 22-- Mar. 22--A DuPage County judge Thursday set a May hearing to decide whether an innocence certificate should be awarded to a man who spent two decades in prison after being convicted in the death of his mother-in-law in a Naperville fire but was acquitted in a 2018 retrial.

Attorneys for former Naperville resident William Amor filed their response Thursday to prosecutors, who oppose Amor's attempt to be issued the certificate. Judge Robert Miller set May 6 for a hearing and arguments.

If Amor is issued the certificate, he would be eligible to collect about $200,000 from a state court that compensates people who have been wrongfully convicted.

Amor, 62, was found guilty in 1997 of first-degree murder and arson. Prosecutors said he set the September 1995 fire that killed his mother-in-law, Marianne Miceli, at her Naperville condo, which she shared with Amor and his new bride, Tina Miceli.

However, that conviction was vacated in 2017, and the following year, Amor was acquitted after a retrial in which experts testified that it was not possible for the fire to have started in the manner Amor confessed to police. His attorneys argued that the fire was likely caused by careless smoking and that police coerced Amor into confessing after a lengthy interrogation during which they served him divorce papers his wife had just filed.

After Amor applied to receive the innocence certificate, prosecutors filed an objection, saying he could not meet the legal bar to prove his innocence and that he contributed to his conviction by confessing.

The response filed Thursday recounts the evidence produced at the retrial and cited by Judge Liam Brennan, who acquitted Amor in February 2018. In his ruling, Brennan said the state's theory of the case, that Amor started the fire perhaps to get Miceli's life insurance payout, was badly flawed based on the evidence at trial.

Amor attorney Kathleen Zellner said in the response that more than enough evidence was produced to show that Amor is innocent.

Amor "admits he does not have video evidence of the ignition of the fire showing he did not set it, but it is all he does not have," Zellner wrote.

Police, she said, "relentlessly pursued Amor" as a suspect and eventually extracted a false confession.

Amor also has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Naperville and several of the officers who investigated the case. It is due back in federal court April 23 for a status hearing, according to court files.

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

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