Birkett joins call for Blagojevich to resume IL executions

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett joined a Republican lawmaker (Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst) Tuesday in urging Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resume executions, saying Illinois' death-penalty system has been reformed.

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But Blagojevich, who first ran for governor in 2002 as a death penalty proponent, plans to stand pat. He'll "keep the moratorium on death penalties in place until it's clear beyond a doubt that the reforms put in place ... are adequate and working and there's no chance that an innocent person will wrongfully be put to death," spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Tuesday.

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Illinois Supreme Court rules approved since 2003 for death-penalty cases include mandatory use of videotape confessions in murder cases, establishment of a fund to help pay for legal defense in death penalty cases, stronger restrictions on the use of "jailhouse snitches," broader use of DNA analysis and strict standards for attorneys prosecuting and defending the cases.

Death penalty opponents say that other important possible reforms -- such as establishing an independent crime lab and narrowing the number of factors that could allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty -- haven't been implemented.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-deathpenalty_13feb13,1,5506413.story

This politically ambitious POS's sole intention is to fry Brian Dugan for the murder of Jeanine Nicarico in time to campaign for whatever office he seeks next (another stab at Lieutenant Governor?). The Trib article kind of says this, but not the same way I did.

DuPage sticks to stubbornness in Nicarico case

November 30, 2005

Eric Zorn

Even more than 20 years after the embarrassing, sickening truth must have become obvious to them, DuPage County authorities still won't say it aloud:

Brian Dugan and Brian Dugan alone abducted, raped and murdered 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville back in 1983, just as he has said.

State's Atty. Joe Birkett repeatedly refused Tuesday afternoon to offer that simple declaration during the news conference in Wheaton in which he announced that a grand jury had indicted Dugan for the crime.

Instead he alluded vaguely to "others may be legally responsible" for Jeanine's murder, declined to offer a theory of the crime and defended previous controversial investigations in the case as having been "done in good faith by honest and ethical professionals."

For more...

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2005/11/dupage_sticks_t_1.html

:eyes:

I would say that I can't wait for someone to nail his sorry ass on this issue. I mean, if anything his shitty work and sleazy tactics on the Dugan case should be strong support AGAINST the death penalty. But I doubt the good people of Du Page will care. So long as they get a Republican in.

Or is that a different right-wing scumbag I'm thinking of?