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Melissa Calusinski Gets New Hearing In Bid To Prove Innocence

(CBS) -- A Lake County judge has granted lawyers for a former Lincolnshire daycare worker convicted of killing a toddler another shot at proving her innocence.

Defense attorney Kathleen Zellner says she'll call several medical experts to testify at Melissa Calusinski's new hearing, WBBM's Nancy Harty reports.

The now-29-year-old was convicted of killing 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan in 2011 and is serving a 31-year sentence.

Zellner says Calusinski was thrilled to hear the news from this morning's court appearance.

The Lake County state's attorney's office says they look forward to a full and fair hearing that they believe will again confirm Calusinski's guilt.

The hearing date will likely be set at a court appearance next month.

"We've been waiting for this day. It's been hard," Calusinski's father, Paul, tells CBS 2's Brad Edwards.

Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd has said the boy wasn't murdered and Calusinski is innocent.

Originally, pathologists said "fatal acute" bleeding had caused Benjamin's death in January 2009, but Rudd – who was not in office at the time – said x-rays indicate the boy had suffered a head injury dating back to October 2008.

"The whole prosecutorial case is based on the fact that the child died of an acute skull fracture. There is none," he has said previously.

"We look forward to having a full and fair hearing," the Lake County state's attorney's office said in a statement. "We believe that the evidence will clearly show that the defendant's claims are without merit and will again confirm that she is guilty of the murder of a child."

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