'This case is a bit of a throwback,' said Clark. Hanson was sentenced to death for fatally beating his sister, Katherine 'Kate' Hanson-Tsao, and her husband, Jimmy, and shooting his parents, Terrance and Mary Lynn Hanson.During Tuesday's hearing before the state's high court, Assistant Attorney General Eric Levin acknowledged no forensic evidence directly ties Hanson to the murders.' But there was an extremely overabundant amount of circumstantial evidence,' he said.That includes Hanson's own admission that he was in his parents' house at the time of the murders, and his testimony that he didn't hear gunshots while he was napping downstairs, despite his fiance's claim that Hanson is a light sleeper, Levin said.Levin also pointed to testimony by a neighbor of the Hanson home, where his parents were murdered, who said all of the lights were on in the house at the time of the murders. Explanations regarding why Hanson had his sister's wedding ring in his SUV after the murders also were inconsistent throughout Hanson's arrest and trial, Levin said.Although the defense claimed Tuesday that a security videotape recorded shortly before the murders showed Hanson's sister wasn't wearing her ring, Levin said the tape could not prove whether she was wearing one. Levin also pointed to a medical examiner's report that a break on his sister's finger was consistent with a pulling motion made from something being removed.Another factor implicating Hanson, Levin said, was the transportation of bodies between his parents' home where Hanson resided and the home of his sister and brother-in-law, where all four bodies were found. Without knowing that the two families were related, there would have been no reason to travel from one home to the other, Levin reiterated.' Whoever did this was extremely close to these two families,' Levin said.Clark, however, said that evidence was circumstantial, and numerous errors made by the lower court should qualify Hanson for a new hearing.
Clark challenged the relevance of witnesses used against Hanson and the effectiveness of his defense attorney at trial. All of these factors, Clark said, should be substantial enough to give Hanson a new trial or at least a new death penalty hearing.' It only takes one juror to spare my client's life,' Clark said.Hanson was convicted on murder charges dating to the evening of Wednesday, Sept. Jimmy Tsao, 34, was attacked on his couch while using his laptop at 10:43 p.m., the time of his final keystroke. Kate, 31, was found near a bedroom doorway. Both were beaten to death, possibly with a golf club. The bodies of Terry, 57, and Mary, 55, both shot in the head, also were found in the Tsao home and garage.Hanson's death sentence was automatically appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Eric Hanson Trial Begins In Case You Didn't Know
The justices issued no ruling Tuesday and are under no immediate deadline to do so.