The United States Supreme Court denied a petition to review the case of the man convicted of the murder of former IU student Jill Behrman in an order list released April 5.
The petition, a writ of certiorari, would have ordered a lower court to send all of the documents it has pertaining to the case to the U.S. Supreme Court for review.
John Myers, who was convicted of the murder, will now remain at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, until his release, with the earliest release date projected to be in June 2037, according to Indiana Public Media.
According to court documents, Myers was sentenced to 65 years in prison after being convicted of the murder of Behrman in 2006.
Myers then submitted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to seek relief in federal court after other Indiana courts upheld the murder conviction. The writ of habeas corpus was a petition to have Myers brought before federal court to determine if his imprisonment was lawful.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted the petition, finding that Myers’ counsel performed deficiently, causing the court to vacate the murder conviction on Sept. 30, 2019.
According to court documents, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, after an appeal, agreed that Myers received deficient counsel during trial, but did not find it to be enough reason to reverse Myers’ conviction.
The circuit court overturned the U.S. District Court's decision to grant Myers a writ of habeas corpus because it found the state’s case against Myers was strong enough to uphold his murder conviction from the Indiana courts, according to court documents.
Behrman disappeared on May 31, 2000, while on a morning bike ride starting in Bloomington, according to documents from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court. The Bloomington Police Department and local community assembled to look for Behrman but were unable to find her.
Behrman’s bike was later found within a mile of Myers’ home, according to court documents.
In 2003, human remains were discovered by two hunters in the woods north of Bloomington, 20 miles north of where Behrman’s bike was discovered, according to court documents. Authorities and a forensic expert determined the remains were Behrman’s through dental records and reopened the case after a previous false confession was recanted.
Investigators began to look at Myers after his grandmother, former girlfriend and others reported him making incriminating statements about the case, according to court documents.
This new information gave the state enough evidence to bring charges against Myers, after which he was indicted for the murder of Behrman, according to court documents.
