"An update
in the case of a former daycare worker convicted of killing a toddler
will be aired on CBS’ “48 Hours” program this weekend. Melissa Calusinski, a Carpentersville woman who was convicted of
murder in a Lake County court in 2011 for the 2009 death of 16-month-old
Benjamin Kingan of Deerfield and sentenced to spend 31 years in prison,
is still seeking to have her conviction overturned. The case made national headlines when 48 Hours first profiled it as a
possible miscarriage of justice a few years back. While Calusinski
confessed to throwing Kingan to the ground while frustrated as a worker
at the Minee Subee daycare in Lincolnshire on Jan. 14, 2009, she has
since recanted her confession and alleged it was coerced. Calusinski
supporters have pointed out in numerous protests that she denied any
wrongdoing at least 79 times and was left in a cold room for hours
before admitting any guilt......... A set of X-rays that showed up in the Lake County Coroner’s Office in
2015 suggested there was no skull fracture and that Kingan could have
suffered from a pre-existing condition that led to his death. The new
findings caused Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd to switch the manner of
death from “homicide” to “undetermined” and for Calusinski’s lawyer,
Kathleen Zellner, to file a postconviction petition seeking the sentence
be overturned. That petition was denied by Judge Daniel Shanes, who presided over
Calusinski’s original trial, but is likely to be appealed by Zellner and
her defense team. CBS’ Erin Moriarty has followed the case since it first aired on 48
Hours and will feature “the latest stunning twists” in the
investigation, according to a CBS news release. The episode, “The Fight
for Melissa,” will be broadcast on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 9 p.m. central
time on CBS. “Melissa Calusinski says she loves children and would never hurt
them. But today she sits in prison serving a 31-year sentence for
murdering a child under her watch at a suburban Chicago day care
center,” reads a preview posted on the CBS website.” “Was she wrongfully
convicted, as her powerhouse attorney Kathleen Zellner, maintains, or
is she a murderer, as argued by the prosecution?" The episode will update viewers with new developments and get viewers
new to the case up to speed on what has taken place since 2009,
including an admitted mistake from the original pathologist."
