June 18 INDIANA: Cop killer's execution postponed indefinitely----Court orders delay to consider whether to hear appeal of sentence in Muncie officer's death. A federal court stepped in Friday to postpone the execution of Michael Allen Lambert as his final clemency hearing was under way in Indianapolis. Lambert, 34, was scheduled to be put to death at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the Dec. 28, 1990, shooting of Muncie Police Officer Gregg Winters. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it wants time to consider whether it will hear the case, delaying the execution indefinitely. The problem, defense attorneys say, is that Lambert is on death row because of a decision made by judges rather than a jury. That's forbidden under today's death penalty laws. "Michael Lambert is the only person on death row whose death sentence was affirmed after an appellate court found that his jury recommendation was tainted," said Paula Sites, of the Indiana Public Defender Council. "Without a valid jury recommendation, he should not be executed." In 1992, a judge allowed Winters' wife, Molly, and others to give victim-impact testimony before the jury recommended the death penalty. 4 years later, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that this testimony unfairly influenced the jury. The court noted the "highly emotional" victim-impact statements filled 29 pages of transcript. But instead of ordering a new sentencing hearing, the justices reweighed the evidence on their own and upheld Lambert's death sentence. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court changed the rules, so that only a jury can hand down a death sentence. The news Friday stunned Winters' family and friends and bolstered those fighting to spare Lambert's life. Both sides had gathered in an auditorium at the Indiana Government Center to offer testimony to the Indiana Parole Board. "Victim-impact statement or not, we all know the facts," Molly Winters said after the hearing. "Gregg was a great man who loved his family and loved his profession. Michael Lambert took it upon himself to be the jury, judge and executioner of my husband." This is the 1st time an Indiana inmate's execution has been postponed in the middle of his clemency hearing, according to Sites. The Indiana attorney general's office quickly appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and still hopes to carry out the execution as scheduled. The nation's high court, however, is not expected to consider the matter before Monday. There are 21 men on Indiana's Death Row, but Lambert is 1 of only 2 whose sentences were not decided by a jury. A judge sentenced Eric D. Holmes to die in 1992 after jurors could not agree on the death penalty. Holmes was convicted in the Nov. 15, 1989, murders of Theresa L. Blosl and Charles W. Ervin during a Castleton Shoney's robbery. Holmes' case is in the federal appeals process, Sites said. Defense attorney Alan Freedman said Lambert deserves to have a jury hear his case and doesn't believe it would recommend death. "Natural life (in prison) is enough in this case," Freedman said. "He's one of the few people on death row about to be killed to get up there and admit responsibility." There are still several legal hurdles before Lambert gets a new sentencing hearing, Freedman said. If the courts agree, he said, a new jury could consider life in prison without parole, an option that didn't exist when he was sentenced. Lambert's supporters told the Parole Board his life is worth saving. Several said Lambert is deeply sorry for the pain he has caused. "What my brother did was so very wrong, but taking his life is not the right answer either," said Mary Lambert Ramsey, Lambert's sister. "Mike committed a terrible crime, but he's not a bad person." Lambert, then 20, had been on a weeks-long drinking binge when he crossed paths with Winters on the snowy December night. Muncie police found an intoxicated Lambert near an abandoned truck that had been involved in a crash. In freezing temperatures, a lightly dressed Lambert was discovered trying to sleep under a car. Police arrested him for public intoxication, cuffed his hands behind his back and loaded him into the back of Winters' squad car. During the ride to jail, Lambert pulled a handgun from his coat pocket and fired 6 shots. 5 hit Winters in the back of the head and neck. He died 11 days later. Lambert admitted pulling the trigger when he addressed the Parole Board on Monday during a hearing at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. "I believe I'm fully responsible," he told the board. "I should be sitting here." Molly Winters agrees. "How do I sum up in a short period of time what 14 1/2 years of hell has been like?" she said Friday. "I lost my best friend that night." (source: Indianapolis Star) FLORIDA: Condemned man asks for death----The death row inmate says he wants his appeal to the governor to help highlight his legal fight. A death row inmate condemned for a murder in Clearwater 23 years ago has asked Gov. Jeb Bush to sign his death warrant. But Milo Rose isn't ready to die. Instead, he hopes the request prompts renewed scrutiny of his case. Rose, 55, sent a handwritten letter to Bush this week proclaiming his innocence, accusing prosecutors of withholding evidence and suggesting his attorneys have failed him. "I do know from experience that the legal system is not designed to correct itself," Rose writes. "I also know from experience that it won't until it is placed under scrutiny. You signing my death warrant will assure the desired scrutiny takes place." A Bush spokesman said Rose's letter will have no effect unless he gives up all appeals. It was unclear Thursday if Rose plans to do that. His most recent attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, could not be reached for comment. "Signing death warrants is something the governor takes very seriously," said spokesman Jacob DePietre. "They don't even come to him until they've gone through the entire appeals process." Rose was convicted in the Oct. 18, 1982, murder of Robert "Butch" Richardson, 30, who was the son of Rose's then-girlfriend. The killing occurred after Rose and Richardson left a downtown Clearwater bar. Richardson fell down drunk and apparently couldn't get up. Rose slammed a 35-pound concrete block into Richardson's head several times, telling him to get up. Several witnesses saw the attack. Rose later admitted to friends that he killed Richardson. Police also found blood on his clothes. Gov. Bob Martinez signed a death warrant for Rose in 1987, but Rose won a delay. His case has been tied up in appeals ever since. He is in the top 50 in seniority of the 369 people on death row. The prosecutor, defense attorney and judge in Rose's 1983 trial have since risen to prominence in Pinellas legal circles. The prosecutor was Bruce Bartlett, now the chief prosecutor under State Attorney Bernie McCabe. The defense attorney was Darryl Rouson, who today is president of the NAACP in St. Petersburg. The judge was Susan Schaeffer, who later became the circuit's chief judge. This was her 1st death penalty case as a judge. Rose had fired 4 lawyers before Rouson was court-appointed to represent him. During the trial, Rose pulled a number of stunts. As a police detective testified, Rose stood up and yelled: "I feel the court is in coercion. I'm being railroaded." Rose then clutched his chest, collapsed to his knees, rolled under a table and claimed to be suffering a heart attack. He put his hand over the right side of his chest - the opposite of his heart. The trial was stopped for three hours as Rose was taken to the hospital, checked by a doctor (the same doctor who had pronounced Richardson dead) and cleared as healthy. Rose also asked Schaeffer if he could dismiss Rouson as his attorney, then asked Schaeffer to remove herself as the trial judge. The jury convicted Rose after several hours of deliberation, then recommended 9-3 that Rose be executed. (source: St. Petersburg Times, June 17) ************************ Pulitzer Winner Gene Miller of The Miami Herald Dies at 76 Former Miami Herald reporter and editor Gene Miller, won 2 Pulitzer Prizes for stories that led to the release of 4 people wrongly convicted of murder, died Friday. He was 76. Miller died at his home near South Miami after suffering from cancer, his family told the Herald for a story posted on its Web site. "He was the soul and the conscience of our newsroom, a somber place the day he died," Herald reporter Martin Merzer wrote. "He coached novice reporters. He turned butter-fingered writers into prize winners. He challenged senior editors when he thought they were wrong, which was pretty often." Miller worked at the Herald for 48 years, retiring in 2001. His 1st Pulitzer was in 1967 for 2 investigations that freed prisoners Joe Shea and Mary Katherin Hampton, who were each convicted of separate murders they didn't commit. In 1976, he won his 2nd Pulitzer after 8 years of reporting about the case of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee. The 2 black men were sentenced to death in 1963 after being convicted of the murders of 2 white gas station attendants in the Florida Panhandle town of Port St. Joe. A 3rd man ended up confessing, and a polygraph expert told Miller about the case. The Herald eventually published 130 articles about the case, most by Miller. He reported that police officers had no evidence, so they beat confessions out of Pitts and Lee. The attention ultimately led state Attorney General Robert Shevin and Gov. Reubin Askew to free Pitts and Lee in 1975. Gene Edward Miller was born in Evansville, Ind., on Sept. 16, 1928. He graduated from Indiana University. Miller is survived by his wife, Caroline Heck Miller, 4 children from a previous marriage, 1 stepson and 8 grandchildren. A memorial service will be scheduled for next week. (source: Associated Press) IOWA: Gay marriage, death penalty talks unlikely----The Senate Democratic leader also says gay marriage or death penalty debates will be unlikely next year. Iowans should not expect a full-scale legislative debate of gay marriage or the death penalty next year, Senate Democratic leader Mike Gronstal said Friday. The Council Bluffs lawmaker, who is exploring running for governor in 2006, downplayed the possibility of a renewed debate in the Legislature about imposing a constitutional ban on gay marriage. "I think it's pretty unlikely we'll have a debate on that. We already have a state law that outlaws gay marriage," said Gronstal. He was commenting on the Iowa Supreme Court's rejection Friday of a lawsuit, spearheaded by conservative lawmakers, to overturn a district judge's ruling that dissolved a lesbian couple's out-of-state civil union. "It's one of those issues where I don't see the votes to pass" in the Senate, Gronstal said during a taping Friday of "Iowa Press," an Iowa Public Television program that will be shown at noon Sunday. The Republican-controlled House this year approved, 54-44, a constitutional amendment declaring that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in Iowa. The proposal never came up for debate in the Senate, divided equally between Democrats and Republicans. As co-leaders of the Senate, Gronstal and Republican counterpart Stewart Iverson of Dows have the power to block legislation they don't like. To become part of the Iowa Constitution, House Joint Resolution 1 would have to be endorsed by the Senate by the end of the 2006 session, then by the next General Assembly in either 2007 or 2008, and finally by voters in a statewide referendum. Gronstal noted that the Senate defeated a similar anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment in 2004. The Democratic legislative leader also said he would continue to block any Republican efforts in the 2006 session to revive the death penalty in Iowa. "It's pure politics for Republicans . . . I don't know why we would waste our time" debating the issue, said Gronstal, who objects to capital punishment on moral grounds and also maintains it would be a very costly addition to the legal system. On the other hand, Gronstal said he would still like to see the Legislature approve an increase in the state cigarette tax. The Senate this year approved a plan to double the cigarette tax to 72 cents a pack, but the proposal died in the House. "I'm not convinced we'll have to raise it next year, but I am convinced it's the right public health thing to do, to discourage young people from starting smoking," said Gronstal, a former smoker. On the issue of taxes, he said the 2006 Legislature is unlikely to revise Iowa's income tax structure, but there will be "more opportunity" to make changes in the state's cumbersome property tax system. Gronstal said this week that he will decide by Sept. 1 whether to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. (source: Des Moines Register) CALIFORNIA: Wesson Found Guilty of Killing 9 - A Fresno jury convicts on 23 counts, including rape and incest. Murder victims all were children of the defendant, who claimed he was Jesus. Marcus Wesson, a controlling patriarch who taught his family that he was Jesus and fathered babies with his daughters and nieces, was found guilty of murdering nine of his children Friday - convictions for last year's slayings that could result in a death sentence. The jury, which deliberated for 10 days, also found Wesson guilty of 14 counts of forcible rape, oral copulation and continuous sexual abuse involving his daughters and nieces. The killings, which were triggered by a child custody dispute, have been described as the worst mass murder in the city's history. The victims, ages 1 to 25, were all shot in an eye; their bodies were found stacked in a backroom in the house, from youngest to oldest. While the verdicts were read, Wesson, much slimmer and dressed in black, sat silently. Afterward, his wife, Elizabeth, and other relatives left in tears without speaking to reporters. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer and Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Egan also were present. Later, Sofina Solorio, whose 7-year-old son Jonathan was among the murder victims and who herself was a victim of abuse, said she wanted to talk but would wait. Jurors now will enter the penalty phase of the trial, which is expected to begin next week. "I have a lot to say," Solorio said, "but I'm not going to say it right now." The case earned this Central Valley town a spot in the national media and got so much local attention that defense attorneys unsuccessfully sought a change of venue. Judge R.L. Putnam asked the lawyers not to discuss the case with the media, and attorneys for both sides declined to be interviewed Friday. The 3-month trial - and the testimony of 50 witnesses - offered a disturbing family portrait, replete with polygamy, incest, bizarre Bible teachings and vampire admiration. The March 12, 2004, murders were prompted by a child custody dispute. Years before, 2 of Wesson's nieces whom he had "married" had left the family home and given their children to him to raise. A feud broke out when the women and their supporters went to the Wesson house to retrieve their children. After a standoff with police, Wesson walked outside, his clothes smeared with blood, all the children dead. The prosecution prevailed in spite of evidence suggesting that Wesson might not have pulled the trigger. His fingerprints and DNA were not found on the murder weapon. Gun residue was not found on his hands. Defense attorneys Ralph Torres and Peter M. Jones argued that the real killer was Wesson's 25-year-old daughter Sebhrenah Wesson, the oldest of the dead children, whose DNA was found on the murder weapon and who Solorio testified was so fascinated with weapons that she carried cartridges and knives in her purse and played Army. But prosecutor Lisa Gamoian argued that Wesson's uncommon control over the children, and a murder-suicide pact he forged with them, meant he was ultimately responsible for the killings - whether he pulled the trigger or not. "'It's better to die than have the government or some agency break up the family,'" Gamoian quoted Wesson as telling his older children. "'Are you ready to die? If [Child Protective Services] ever comes in, we are to kill the kids and kill ourselves so we can be with the Lord.'" The prosecution depicted Wesson as a manipulator who had sex and children with 3 generations of women in the same family: a woman, her daughter and her granddaughters. As the head of a clan with 16 children - 9 of his own with his wife and 7 nieces and nephews - he controlled his household through sexual and physical abuse and a perverted religious ideology. According to testimony, Wesson home-schooled the children and taught that the world was full of sin and danger and that he was Christ. Wesson was also a strict disciplinarian who punished his children with a stick and subjected them to long Bible lessons, including passages that justified polygamy. Testimony revealed that Wesson began molesting his daughters and nieces when they were as young as 8, and eventually engaged in sex with them. In an informal ceremony, he "married" some of them, then had 7 babies with them "for the Lord." The defense did not dispute the polygamy and incestuous relationships. DNA confirmed that Wesson was the father of all the children who were killed. They argued that Wesson, a former Army medic who was stationed in Vietnam for a time, was eccentric but not a murderer. Sebhrenah Wesson's DNA was found on the murder weapon. The defense argued that she placed a gun to the socket of each child's right eye and fired, killing her own son, Marshey St. Christopher Wesson, 18 months, and six other siblings: Jeva St. Vladensvspry Wesson, 1; Sedona Vadra Wesson, 18 months; Ethan St. Laurent Wesson, 4; Jonathan St. Charles Wesson, 7; Aviv Dominique Wesson, 7; and Illabelle Carrie Wesson, 8. The coroner determined that the younger children died 1 to 2 hours before Sebhrenah and her 17-year-old sister Elizabeth Wesson died. Jurors heard testimony from defense witnesses who testified that Sebhrenah's injury was consistent with suicide and that a mark on her finger could have been made by her handling of the weapon. Defense witnesses also alleged that sloppy police work contaminated the crime scene. "Does it matter?" prosecutor Gamoian asked one witness. "Does it change the fact that 9 people were killed with a .22-caliber pistol?" The counts Marcus Wesson was found guilty of all 23 counts. Associated Press is withholding the names of the 6 surviving nieces and daughters Wesson was convicted of raping and molesting. Count 1: Murder of Sebhrenah Wesson Count 2: Murder of Elizabeth Wesson Count 3: Murder of Jeva Wesson Count 4: Murder of Sedona Wesson Count 5: Murder of Marshey Wesson Count 6: Murder of Ethan Wesson Count 7: Murder of Illabelle Wesson Count 8: Murder of Aviv Wesson Count 9: Murder of Jonathan Wesson Counts 10-12: Continuous sexual abuse of niece, 1988-89; also forcible oral copulation, 1990-91 Counts 13-15: Continuous sexual abuse of daughter; also forcible rapes in 1995, 2002 Counts 16-17: Continuous sexual abuse and forcible rape of niece Counts 18-19: Continuous sexual abuse and forcible rape of niece Counts 20-21: Forcible rape of niece, 1998-99 and 2001-02 Count 22: Continuous sexual abuse of daughter Count 23: Forcible rape of Sebhrenah Wesson (source: Los Angeles Times) ILLINOIS: DNA Clears Ill. Man of Murder Charges Confronted with a DNA test that didn't match, authorities dropped murder charges Friday against a man accused of sexually assaulting and drowning his 3-year-old daughter. Kevin Fox, 28, had claimed he was bullied by police into falsely implicating himself in the girl's death. He was released from jail after spending eight months in custody, and said he was looking forward to spending an evening with his wife and their young son. "It was a nightmare and I don't want to relive it right now," he said as he hugged his wife. Fox reported his daughter, Riley, missing last June. Police said he told them he had awoken to find the girl gone and the front door to their home open. Hikers found the girl's body a short time later in a creek 4 miles away. Police said they charged Fox after he told them he faked the abduction because he thought he had accidentally killed the girl by hitting her in the head with a bathroom door. But Fox filed a federal lawsuit in November claiming detectives subjected him to threats, lies and promises of a deal during a 14 1/2-hour interrogation. He claimed investigators led him to believe that he would get a more lenient sentence if he said he accidentally killed his daughter. "It just appeared on the face of it to have all the hallmarks of a false confession," said Rob Warden, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University. State's Attorney James Glasgow said Friday that authorities are now reinvestigating Riley Fox's death and have a number of leads to chase, he said. Fox was charged with first-degree murder and sexual assault by former Will County State's Attorney Jeff Tomczak 1 month before his re-election, and Tomczak had vowed to seek the death penalty. Glasgow, who defeated Tomczak, said his predecessor's administration had sent the DNA samples to the FBI for testing but there was a backlog and they were never examined. After Glasgow took office in December, he said he got the samples back and worked with Fox's attorney to choose a lab to test them. Tomczak, now in private practice in Joliet, did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday. (source: Associated Press) ************************ Murderer eligible for death penalty A Kane County judge Friday ruled that a mentally ill woman recently convicted of murdering a West Dundee resident is eligible for the death penalty. The circumstances of the 2003 death of Lynn M. Weis, 32, who was stabbed 90 times, were heinous enough to qualify Vivian Mitchell, 40, for the death penalty, said Kane County Judge Patricia Piper Golden. To qualify for a possible death sentence a murder must be committed during the course of another felony, and that felony must be an inherently violent crime. In addition to 1st-degree murder, Mitchell was found guilty of felony home invasion and aggravated arson, and the judge cited those factors in her decision. In November, Piper Golden found Mitchell--who suffers from paranoid delusions--guilty but mentally ill after a 6-day bench trial. ******************** Clemency at issue for Ryan trial----Death penalty actions not relevant, U.S. says Federal prosecutors on Friday moved to block former Gov. George Ryan's lawyers from touting his anti-death penalty efforts at his trial, suggesting that Ryan's stand was designed to counteract his impending indictment. The government contends Ryan's moratorium on capital punishment and blanket clemency of more than 160 Death Row inmates are irrelevant to the charges against him and thus should be inadmissible at trial. After Ryan's indictment in late 2003, his lawyer, Dan K. Webb, said he intended to tell the jury of the governor's effort to "fix a broken-down death penalty system." He called Ryan's actions "acts of courage which I believe speak the true mark of this man." But prosecutors pointed out that Ryan's death row commutation in his final days in office came after federal investigators had questioned him four times about the corruption allegations. Ryan "had good reason to engage in what could be perceived as good (or `courageous') acts," the government filing said. If Ryan is allowed to claim his decision was a courageous one, prosecutors argued, they should be able to tell jurors of how Ryan has reaped financial benefits from his death-penalty decisions, collecting speaking fees as he travels to lecture on the subject and soliciting anti-death penalty supporters for contributions to his legal defense fund. The indictment accuses Ryan of corruption spanning more than a decade and alleges he and his family received illegal cash payments, gifts and vacations from friends and cronies in return for steering state business to them. He is scheduled to go on trial on Sept. 15 with Lawrence Warner, who was a key member of Ryan's "kitchen cabinet" of advisers and is alleged to have pocketed about $3 million in the scheme. In their filing, prosecutors note that much of the wrongdoing charged against Ryan allegedly took place during his two terms as secretary of state, a post that has no connection to the death-penalty issue. At some length, the government explained in its filing how Ryan's historic death-penalty decisions as governor came as the federal Operation Safe Road probe reached into his inner circle. If Ryan is permitted to tout his commutation as an act of courage, prosecutors said, jurors should "know of the speaking fees that Ryan has collected and put in his bank account as he travels about lecturing on the subject of the death penalty." Prosecutors also took to task Webb's pronouncement that Ryan's actions on the death penalty would influence jurors to acquit him of the corruption charges. That "raises the question of whether Ryan's death penalty decisions, far from being courageous, constituted an attempt to influence the jury pool." "If the court permits the opening of this evidentiary door, then the government will be entitled in fairness to present to the jury the other--less admirable--explanation for Ryan's conduct," the government said. Prosecutors also fretted that introducing a subject as emotionally charged as the death penalty would distract jurors from "the real issues in the case." Ryan's lawyers also filed several motions Friday, seeking to bar media access to a crucial stage of jury selection and pushing for the sentencing of 6 key government witnesses before trial to relieve pressure on them to toe the government line in their testimony. "Witnesses so compromised threaten the integrity of the judicial system," the defense filing said. Ryan's lawyers moved to bar reporters from attending the questioning of prospective jurors individually during the selection process. Would-be jurors may be less candid in responding to sensitive questions if they fear their answers and identity would be widely publicized, they argued. Too alleviate that concern, the defense proposed that transcripts of that part of the jury selection be released to the media with the identities of the prospective jurors concealed. The defense proposed that the identity of the prospective jurors be concealed from the public and that transcripts of the questioning would then be released to the media. Ryan's lawyers also attacked the delay in the sentencing of the six key government witnesses, including star witness Scott Fawell, Ryan's former right-hand man who agreed to cooperate in a bid to win leniency for his fiancee, co-defendant Alexandra Coutretsis. "The only reason for this delay is to maximize pressure, and that has the impact of making his testimony even more unreliable," the defense filing said. Lawyers for Ryan and Warner also sought to bar the jury from having the government's indictment with them during deliberations, calling the charges "one-sided" and "highly biased." In another motion, Ryan's lawyers proposed that testimony be heard only between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays "to minimize the burden" on jurors in a trial that could last 4 to 6 months. In recent days, the prosecution and defense submitted a proposed questionnaire for prospective jurors to fill out, but numerous disagreements must be resolved by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer. "Would you agree or disagree with the opinion that many politicians are corrupt?" said one question proposed by the defense. (source for both: Chicago Tribune) ********************** Rushing to a false confession Kevin Fox on Friday added one more name--his own--to the lengthy roster of individuals who have confessed to a terrible crime they didn't commit. Fox was accused of the sexual assault and murder of his 3-year-old daughter, Riley. Her body was found a year ago in a creek about 4 miles from her Will County home after her father reported her missing. On Friday, prosecutors said DNA tests cleared him as a suspect in the girl's death. He was released from jail into the embrace of his wife. Next month, a landmark law goes into effect across Illinois, requiring police departments to begin electronically taping custodial police interrogations and confessions. Illinois was the first state to pass the sweeping legislation in 2003 and has since been followed by others. Taping, however, will not resolve the problem of false confessions unless police officials re-evaluate the techniques they use to elicit those statements. Why did Kevin Fox spend 8 months behind bars, haunted by the thought that prosecutors sought his execution? That demands a careful study by police interrogators. A myth still persists among some in law enforcement that no one would confess to a gruesome crime he did not commit. A stronger conviction holds that no person of normal intellect and development would ever do so. Kevin Fox proved them wrong. He wasn't a teenager. He wasn't mentally retarded. He had no particular deficiencies that would make him especially vulnerable to suggestion or the kinds of pressure tactics used perfectly legally by police interrogators. Fox's attorneys suggest he was a normal guy who simply got worn down after a 14-hour interrogation and the trauma of losing his daughter. Contributing to his erosion of confidence about what really happened were promises of an involuntary manslaughter charge and quick release if he admitted his daughter's death was the result of an accident. It wasn't obvious right away that Fox was innocent. But there were a few warning flags that should have muted the zeal of prosecutors to file charges. Among them: The length of the interrogation, the fact that his confession was taped but not shown to a grand jury, his immediate recantation of his confession. And more reasons: There wasn't physical evidence tying him to the scene of the crime, and he had strong support from friends and family. And then there was the rush by then-Will County State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak to file charges and call for the death penalty--just days before he faced voters (in an election he lost). The damage to Fox and his family is incalculable. And his daughter's killer remains at large. (source: Editorial, Chicago Tribune)
