Attorneys try to win new trial for local activist

URBANA – Lawyers for community activist Patrick Thompson are trying to show that Thompson's former lawyer did a poor job representing him at a trial in which Thompson was convicted in connection with an attack on an Urbana woman in her home in 2004.

On Wednesday, Champaign County Judge Harry Clem allowed Champaign attorneys Robert Kirchner and Ruth Wyman to present testimony from six people in an effort to bolster their claim that Urbana attorney Harvey Welch was ineffective when he represented Thompson on charges of home invasion and criminal sexual abuse.

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