* From the Tribune…
“For me, this was a difficult decision, quite literally the choice between life and death,” [Gov. Pat Quinn] wrote in his signing statement. “This was not a decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I came to without deep personal reflection.”
“Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it,” Quinn wrote. “With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case.”
“For the same reason, I have also decided to commute the sentences of those currently on death row to natural life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole or release,” the governor wrote.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The governor’s press conference was moved back to 12:30. Listen or watch by clicking here. I’ll be live blogging and inserting Twitter posts from others as well…
*** UPDATE 2 *** If you missed the lunchtime event, you can catch up by listening to the audio…
…Adding… A quick roundup…
* Quotes about abolition of Illinois’ death penalty after Gov. Quinn sign bill
* Victim’s mom: Governor wrong to end death penalty: Pam Bosley says she and other loved ones of victims of gun violence met Quinn a few weeks ago and tried to talk him out of signing the bill.
* 15 men on death row in Illinois
* Emanuel, Daley split on Quinn’s death penalty ban: “It’s the right thing to do. I’m glad he’s made that decision,” Emanuel said. “It’s a different day.” … “As a former prosecutor, I believe DNA testing should be part of the whole criminal justice system here in the state of Illinois,” Daley said. “It prevents any abuse whatsoever if you get DNA testing.”
* Illinois Gov. Quinn signs bill banning death penalty
* Zorn: Passing thought — today truly marks the end of the Nicarico murder case
* Actor, anti-death penalty activist Mike Farrell praises Ill. governor for ending death penalty
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the SJ-R…
Springfield police ticketed an Auburn woman Monday for allegedly standing on the road trying to solicit work.
Laura A. Welch, 43, allegedly had a double-sided sign that read, “Mom of three, out of work” and “Out of work, hungry” on it. Police saw her about 2:10 p.m. at Dirksen Parkway and Stevenson Drive. They said they recognized her because they have talked to her numerous times before and told her not to solicit work in the roadway.
She had no permit, so she was ticketed.
* The Question: Should this be illegal? Explain, please.
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* Miracle upon miracles, the Tribune editorial page actually praised Senate President Cullerton today…
John Cullerton, president of the Illinois Senate, committed a dreadful sin Monday. During a speech that could have been titled “State Finance 101,” the Chicago Democrat briefly mentioned that if Illinois taxed retirement income, Springfield would collect some $1.6 billion a year.
Can you believe that? A politician dared to mention taxing a powerful voting bloc! The lecture Cullerton wasn’t delivering Monday, “Politics 101,” dictates that talk of taxing seniors is verboten.
The accompanying photo wasn’t exactly flattering…
Oof. He looks like an unsober fop in that pic. Let’s avoid captions, please. Wouldn’t be fair. And I don’t have time to police them.
* Regardless of that photo, it’s hard to disagree with their conclusion…
Sen. Cullerton, you have a good point. Illinois needs a talk about revising tax policies and rethinking exemptions. Not to grab more from taxpayers, but to broaden the tax base as a matter of fairness. Why should the working family making $50,000 a year pay a tax that the retiree getting $100,000 a year avoids? Credit Cullerton for thinking creatively — and out loud.
I was just on the phone with former Gov. Jim Thompson talking about all the big bills that have been passed during the past few months. Subscribers will see more, but one of the things Thompson emphasized is that we need to broaden the tax base. He was mostly talking about the sales tax. The problem with a narrow, outdated taxing base, he said, is that rates have to be raised on an ever-smaller pot of available money. It makes no sense. Expand the base and then significantly lower overall rates is the better way to go. I’d prefer, however, (and I believe Thompson does as well) that they stick to expanding the base on sales taxes and not mess with the income tax, but it’s the same basic point. Expand the base and lower rates.
The problem with this particular Cullerton idea is that expanding the base will not lower rates if it’s just confined to seniors making over $100K a year. That only brings in $70 million a year. It’s best just to drop it.
* The Sun-Times makes many of the same points today…
But the noise should not drown out an important conversation about tax reform. Illinois desperately needs to update its tax system so it is based on ability to pay and targets taxes where the economy is expanding — among the wealthiest, not the poorest. Illinois’ current tax system, anchored by a flat income tax and a narrow sales tax base, disproportionately hits our poorest residents.
Gov. Quinn wants to create a commission to look at ways to update the tax system. We’re all for it, though several good proposals are already well-known. These include changing the state Constitution to allow for a graduated income tax, expanding the sales tax base to reflect our modern service economy (an idea Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel supports) and, potentially, taxing some retirement income.
Quinn should’ve appointed that commission a year ago. He’s a bit late now, after raising income tax rates by two points.
The other thing Thompson and I discussed is my belief that it’ll be at least a generation before the citizenry stops being infuriated at this latest tax hike. He agreed. In my own opinion, it was done the wrong way, in every way. The money is needed, to be sure, but this thing is a political disaster.
Discuss.
…Adding… Related…
* Hines: Cullerton not all wrong in pension tax proposal
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Stuff you may not know
Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Hawthorne Race Course canceled its race card yesterday. It’s just another in a long string of woes faced by the state’s racing industry. And check this out…
Maywood Park, a harness track in the western suburbs, is threatening to close if a bill doesn’t pass by June. Sportsman’s Park, which stood next to Hawthorne for decades, closed in 2002. Rumor has it that a waste management company covets Hawthorne’s 119 acres for an incinerator and recycling plant, which would join the oil refinery and the sewage treatment plant in fouling the air of the near western suburbs.
* SIU President Glenn Poshard testified in a legislative committee last week about his university’s budget woes…
“Today, SIU’s operational support from the state of Illinois is now what it was at the close of the 20th century,” Poshard said in his testimony.
Yikes.
* The Belleville News-Democrat editorialized today on the state’s pension problems…
If a private business allowed its pension to be underfunded so badly, the responsible parties probably would be in jail.
Yeah. Like those guys ever go to jail. The big financial concerns tanked the world’s economy and nobody’s even been indicted, let alone jailed.
What happens when a private company screws up its pension fund? The federal Pension Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation takes over. And it’s now in trouble…
State and local government pensions aren’t the only ones in trouble.
Corporate pensions, too, are woefully underfunded, and the federal agency that insures them against losses is facing a dangerous deficit that taxpayers may end up covering. One government watchdog agency says the federal insurance funds are at “high risk” of failure. Moreover, the Obama administration’s proposal to fix this is meeting stiff resistance from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business interests.
The little-known federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. insures roughly 27,500 corporate defined-benefit pensions, covering 44 million U.S. workers. These plans, popular in the public sector but increasingly rare in the private economy, promise workers fixed monthly retirement income, often equivalent to a final year’s salary or an average salary over the last few years of work.
Maybe the states should just get a change in US law and turn over their pensions to the federal government.
* I had no idea…
[State Sen. John Sullivan] said about a decade ago river otters were reintroduced in Western Illinois, but now they have migrated to ponds and are eliminating the fish population.
After contacting the Department of Natural resources, Sullivan said they were on board with a bill that would create a trapping season for river otters to help curb the population growth in ponds.
“It’s estimated in Western Illinois the river otter population is over 10,000, and in a few years it will be 30,000. They don’t have any natural predators,” Sullivan said.
* Do people really talk like this in the real world? Weird, man…
Newsradio 620 in Milwaukee has a shocking story about the dirty underground efforts by the Chicago political machine loyal to Rahm Emanuel and President Obama that is apparently applying its dark arts again, this time assisting the leftist, fleebagging Wisconsin State Senators in their efforts to thwart the democratic process in the Badger State.
Aside from the bizarre hyperbole, what’s the big crime? Well, a Wisconsin Republican claims that some folks connected with Obama’s past campaign are now helping with the recall of 8 GOP state Senators. Even if true, what does it prove? Lots of people worked for Obama two years ago, and they need to keep making money. Hacks gotta eat, too.
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*** UPDATE *** So much for that excuse…
Federal officials said later Wednesday that the checks are in the mail.
The clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois told The Associated Press that vouchers from Blagojevich’s attorneys for their work were submitted in mid-February, and Michael Dobbins said the checks were cut Wednesday and were going out in the mail.
He said payments to federal defenders have been complicated by budget disputes on Capitol Hill.
Back to work, gentlemen.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Consider it highly doubtful that Rod Blagojevich gets what he wants…
Rod Blagojevich wants to cancel his upcoming retrial, asking to be sentenced immediately, however, prosecutors and the judge would have to approve of the request.
That’s a tall order, considering 20 counts remain pending against the former governor, including that he tried selling President Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Blagojevich narrowly missed conviction on those counts, some of the most significant in the case, in the first trial with jurors voting 11-1 on many of the charges.
Blagojevich’s lawyers filed a five-page motion Wednesday morning asking to proceed to sentencing right away and avoid a retrial that’s set to begin April 20.
“A second prosecution of this case is an irresponsible use of taxpayer funds in light of the current economic crisis and Blagojevich’s imminent sentencing on the conviction from the first trial,” lawyers wrote in the motion. […]
“There’s charges pending, the only way they get out of those charges is if the government drops them,” says Michael Ettinger, a federal defense lawyer who represented Blagojevich’s brother, Robert. Charges against Rob Blagojevich were dropped after the last trial. [Emphasis added.]
He’d be looking at a maximum of five years if he was sentenced on that one charge.
* From Blagojevich’s filing…
At the first trial, defense counsel were funded by the Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund – not by taxpayers. The campaign fund was exhausted toward the end of trial and counsel for Blagojevich received only partial compensation (one-fifth of payment) for the last month of trial, July 2010. […]
To date, defense counsel have been working on the Blagojevich case for almost nine months without pay. This has caused a significant hardship and has deprived Blagojevich of his right to effective assistance of counsel as required by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.
The financial hardship this has caused defense counsel has created a vast inequity in this case between the government and the defense. […]
As such, preparation for retrial is not complete and will not be complete by April 20, 2011.
* Several legal analysts were quoted this morning. Let’s start with Fox Chicago…
FOX Chicago News Legal Analyst Larry Yellen said he didn’t expect the judge to grant the motion. Judge James Zagel throughout the case has kept the trial mostly on schedule and has denied previous, similar motions. Yellen said it may be a publicity ploy, or the lawyers could simply be trying to get paid.
Legal analyst Karen Conti also said she didn’t expect the motion to go anywhere, but it did seem to be an appeal to the public.
* WGN…
“This is about money, except the government is supposed to be footing the bill for this trial. There’s a couple possibilities here. It could be a legitimate request. From Blagojevich’s attorneys’ view, ‘we do not look good in a retrial and if you are convicted you face many many years in prison.’” [said WGN-TV political analyst Paul Lisnek.]
Lisnek noted that the government generally wins in the retrial of similar cases and said Blagojevich may fare better facing sentencing on the earlier conviction.
WGN-TV legal analyst Terry Sullivan agreed that Blagojevich’s money problems could be behind the lastest request.
“He hasn’t been able to rent office space, hasn’t been able to hire investigators–all the things that were pretty much stripped from him for the preparation for a second trial because of the fact that he’s now working off public funds,” he said.
* Meanwhile, a guy who cooperated with the feds for years on the Tony Rezko matter just pled guilty to two criminal counts that had expired under the statute of limitations…
A onetime Tony Rezko business partner, who once was a Chicago cop and chief executive of a company that won a $50 million security contract in Iraq, has pleaded guilty to federal charges in Chicago after he cooperated with authorities. […]
[Daniel T. Frawley] admitted to obtaining a fraudulent $4.5 million loan from First Bank in Missouri and making false representations to the bank in 1999 and 2000.
Frawley also admits to structuring a series of withdrawals from another bank, taking out a total of $87,000 at less than $10,000 each time. He said he did it to avoid disclosure requirements, which kick in at $10,000.
The conduct charged is beyond the statute of limitations and his plea deal indicates Frawley agreed to waive the statute as part of a deal. Frawley could have faced more than five years but prosecutors will recommend 18 months, according to his deal. Frawley’s lawyers can ask for less time as part of the agreement.
That’s some pretty serious stuff to waive a statute and agree to plead guilty. But the feds are just relentless, which is why nobody figures they’ll let Blagojevich have his way and be sentenced immediately.
* The state also just wrapped up a case against one of Chris Kelly’s pals…
A major contractor for the city of Chicago was spared extra time behind bars Tuesday when he was sentenced to two years of probation for failing to give minority subcontractors their share of business on two projects.
Robert Blum, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud Tuesday.
In the plea agreement, Cook County Judge Kevin Sheehan ordered Blum to pay a 20,000 fine. Blum’s Castle Construction Corp. also must pay a $20,000 fine.
Blum is scheduled to surrender to federal officials March 23 to begin serving a two-year sentence for his August conviction for filing false income tax returns. Blum was also ordered to pay $2.1 million in restitution after he admitted that he spent $1.3 million in company money on his palatial home in New Lenox, according to the IRS.
* More…
Federal records show Blum had sought a break on his tax-evasion sentence by asking U.S. District Judge James Zagel to consider his cooperation with federal authorities investigating Kelly.
But federal prosecutors objected, saying in a filing in December that “the government had concerns regarding (Blum’s) truthfulness and his value as a potential witness” and “had concluded not to call him as a witness in any trial against Mr. Kelly.”
According to state investigators, Castle was awarded a $9.8 million contract in 2006 to build several bus- and train-washing facilities for the Chicago Transit Authority. Blum told the agency he had subcontracted $2.96 million of work to minority-owned Mid-City, but the subcontract with that firm was actually only $550,000.
In 2007, Castle won a $9 million contract with the Chicago Public Building Commission to build a new fire station in the Edgewater neighborhood, investigators said. Blum told the commission that a minority-owned business would perform about one-fourth of the work, but Castle instead hired a non-minority firm.
* Related…
* Blagojevich and the Complexity of Jury Instructions: Jury instructions have clearly become so burdensome and so complex that juries like the Blagojevich jury can hardly be expected to weed through them and appreciate their detail. With lives literally at stake, what options do federal judges have to “dumb down” what in many districts are mandatory jury instructions? And how much can one really do to reduce “legalese” in jury instructions that must be precise and hew to the language of the statute and of previously used instructions if they are to stand up on appeal?
* Burr Ridge Mansion of Former Blago Fundraiser Sold at Foreclosure - The mansion owned by Christopher Kelly went for $1.6 million at foreclosure sale.
* Fired IDOT workers settle lawsuit - Sixteen employees were found to have been let go for political reasons
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* No surprise…
Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign historic legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois on Wednesday, according to the House sponsor and sources familiar with the governor’s plans.
The Democratic governor on Tuesday quietly invited death penalty opponents to a private bill-signing ceremony scheduled for late Wednesday morning in his Springfield office. Quinn’s office confirmed that the governor has an event at the Capitol on Wednesday to announce his decision on the death penalty measure.
“They point-blank told me they were signing the bill (Wednesday),” sponsoring Rep. Karen Yarbrough told the Tribune.
Quinn has until March 18 to sign or veto the legislation or it automatically becomes law. He was poised to deal with it late last week but decided to continue listening to both sides of the issue. On Monday, Quinn told reporters he planned to act this week.
* As of last night, the governor’s office wasn’t confirming anything…
Quinn’s office would not divulge the governor’s intentions nor did it release his Wednesday schedule, saying an itinerary for the day’s events likely would be forthcoming early in the day.
“Unfortunately, I can’t confirm anything for tomorrow,” said Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson late Tuesday.
* But shortly after 7 o’clock this morning, they sent out this press release…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 9, 2011
CONTACT: Grant Klinzman (o. 312-814-3158; c. 217-299-2448)
Annie Thompson (o. 217-782-7355; c. 217-720-1853)
GOVERNOR’S PUBLIC SCHEDULE **Wednesday, March 9, 2011**
SPRINGFIELD - Governor Pat Quinn will hold a press availability.
WHO: Governor Quinn
WHEN: 12 p.m.
WHERE: Governor’s Office
207 Statehouse
2nd and Monroe
Springfield, 62706
ADDITIONAL: The availability will be streamed live on www.Illinois.gov.
Due to space constraints, press credentials will be required.
They usually don’t stream press avails live on the Interwebtubies, so that’s a pretty darned good indication that this one is important. Watch it here.
* Back to the coverage…
Not clear are Quinn’s intentions for those now on death row, a group of 15 men that includes serial killer Brian Dugan, who was convicted in the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.
The repeal measure Yarbrough and state Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) got through the Legislature in January is silent about the fate of those sentenced to death since former Gov. George Ryan’s set aside the death sentences of the 167 inmates on death row in 2003.
“I don’t know if there will be action on the 15,” Raoul said.
Yarbrough also was unclear on that question and said the Quinn aide with whom she spoke Tuesday did not address it.
* More…
Among those the governor consulted with were prosecutors, murder victims’ families, death penalty opponents and religious leaders. Quinn even heard from retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and met with Sister Helen Prejean, the inspiration for the movie “Dead Man Walking.”
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan appealed directly to Quinn to veto the bill, as did several county prosecutors and victims’ families. They said safeguards, including videotaped interrogations and easier access to DNA evidence, were in place to prevent innocent people from being wrongly executed.
But death penalty opponents argued that there was still no guarantee that an innocent person couldn’t be put to death. Even Quinn’s own lieutenant governor, Sheila Simon, a former southern Illinois prosecutor, asked him to abolish capital punishment.
Illinois’ last execution was in 1999, a year before then-Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on capital punishment after the death sentences of 13 men were overturned. Ryan cleared death row before leaving office in 2003 by commuting the death sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison.
* But expect lots of outrage from the families of victims…
Cindy McNamara whose daughter Shannon was murdered in 2001, says she wants Quinn to keep her killer on death row.
“The most lethal should be put to death. They don’t have any role or place in our society today,” she said.
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