At a press conference Friday Iris Seabolt spoke with reporters for the first time since she was exonerated this week after spending 19 years in prison for an Elkhart murder she didn’t commit. Seabolt said she has a lot she wants to do, and the same goes for those who helped her.
Seabolt, flanked by lawyers, students and staff at Notre Dame’s Exoneration Justice Clinic, said she looks forward to spending more time with her great-grandchildren, something she missed with her grandchildren while she was in prison.
“It’s a relief to have my name cleared, to have my children and grandchildren and anybody else that knows and loves me, for them to know without a shadow of a doubt that she did not do this," she said.
Seabolt’s is now the fourth wrongful conviction involving Elkhart Police Detective Steven Rezutko, who fabricated evidence in her case. He died by suicide in 2019.
Attorney and adjunct professor Elliot Slosar says they’ll next focus on pushing for an independent counsel to investigate all post-conviction relief cases that Rezutko worked.
“There are a lot of other Iris’es in there," he said. "We’re hoping that there’s an independent investigation done to identify all of these other people wrongfully convicted in the city of Elkhart, and especially by disgraced Detective Steve Rezutko.”
