Illinois Gov. Rauner denies clemency for dead man despite serial killer's confession

FILE - This August 1993 file photo from the Illinois Department of Corrections via The Southern shows Grover Thompson in the Menard Correctional Center in Dwight, Ill. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has rejected a clemency request on behalf of Thompson, a deceased Illinois prisoner convicted in a stabbing to which a serial killer later confessed. The clemency was denied even though in 2007, Timothy Krajcir confessed to the 1981 attack to former Carbondale police detective Paul Echols. (Illinois Department of Corrections/The Southern via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

This undated photo provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections shows Timothy Krajcir. Krajcir confessed to the 1981 attempted murder of 72-year-old Ida White in Mount Vernon, Ill., to former Carbondale police detective Paul Echols in 2007. Grover Thompson died serving a 40-year prison sentence in the stabbing of White. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner recently rejected posthumous clemency for Thompson. (Illinois Department of Corrections via AP) (The Associated Press)

Gov. Bruce Rauner has rejected posthumous clemency for an Illinois man despite the confession of a serial killer to the crime more than a decade after the inmate died.

Grover Thompson died in 1996 while serving a 40-year sentence for the attempted 1981 murder of 72-year-old Ida White in Mount Vernon.

Two police detectives told The Associated Press that serial killer Timothy Krajcir (CRY-chur) confessed to White's stabbing long after Thompson had died.

Krajcir is imprisoned for two southern Illinois killings, has received life sentences for five southeast Missouri killings and has pleaded guilty to killings in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

A Dec. 2 Illinois Prisoner Review Board letter provided to The Associated Press shows that Rauner denied clemency for Thompson in late November. Rauner's office declined further comment.