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Hi, I'm Jillian and you are listening to Episode 2 of the Court Junkie podcast.

In this episode, I'm going to be talking about the hearings that just occurred this week in the Melissa Kelli Zinsky case.

Now, I covered Melissa's case in Episode 1, so if you haven't heard that yet or you're unfamiliar with the case, please go back and listen to that episode first.

Trust me, it will make more sense if you do.

So to recap, Melissa was arrested in January 2009.

After a 16-month-old boy named Benjamin King and died while under her carat a daycare center in Lincolnshire, Illinois,

Melissa was tried in November 2011 and was convicted of murder, and she's currently serving out a 31-year sentence at the Logan Correctional Center.

As you'll recall, in June 2016, Melissa's trial judge, Judge Daniel Shains, granted Melissa a hearing to present new evidence in the hopes of getting a retrial,

or the very best case scenario, which would be having her conviction overturned with no retrial necessary.

Melissa's attorney, Kathleen Zelner, who had just joined Melissa's team after her conviction, and who's well-known for her work in wrongful conviction cases,

had filed a motion on the basis that newly discovered X-rays showed zero evidence of a skull fracture, which is what the state had argued at trial.

She said that instead, there's evidence of a prior injury.

I woke up at 5am on Thursday to get ready for Melissa's hearing.

It was held at the Lake County Courthouse in Wachigan, Illinois, which is over an hour from where I live in Chicago.

I got there at about 8.30 and as I went through security, I saw Melissa's family. Her father, her mother, her aunt, her uncle.

They all had a nervous excitement about them, which, if I were to guess, might be excitement for Melissa to get this chance at freedom and yet nervousness for it not to work out.

I asked Melissa's mom how she was holding up and she told me that she was just nervous for Melissa.

To say that Melissa's family is friendly is kind of an understatement.

They're not only really, really nice, but they're approachable and inclusive.

They made sure to thank and talk to everyone who came to support their daughter.

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