[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 10



PENNSYLVANIA:

Harvest of death


Editor: The murder case involving suspect Eric Frein may cause a whole new 
debate on the death penalty.

I am not an advocate of capital torture, such as electric shock and neck 
snapping, but the following may satisfy both sides of the capital punishment 
issue.

The convicted murderer should be anesthetized as they do for heart surgery. 
Then, all harvestable organs should be removed and donated to innocent people 
just trying to survive another day. It would be execution with a humane 
outcome.

It's a win-win-win for all concerned.

The state wouldn't have to support the killer, as in the case of convicted 
murderer George Banks, for a lengthy period.

The murder victim's family may get some comfort from the good accomplished 
through organ donation. The murderer's family would get some comfort that 
something good has come out of evil, and even the murderer gets to know that he 
will live on in a good way in the bodies of good people.

Liberal anti-execution people should have no problem with this solution.

RALPH CHASE

OLD FORGE

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Times-Tribune)






ILLINOIS:

Darby Tillis, who fought wrongful convictions after he was freed, dies at 71


Darby Tillis, one of the first men to be freed from Illinois' death row, died 
Sunday morning at Rush Hospital of what is thought to have been an aneurysm. He 
was 71.

Mark A. Clements, a board member of the Campaign to End to Death Penalty, said 
Mr. Tillis was a respected and strong advocate for ending the death penalty and 
wrongful convictions and "will be greatly missed."

Mr. Tillis and co-defendant Perry Cobb went to trial 5 times for the early 
morning 1977 murder of Melvin Kanter and Charles Guccione at an Uptown 
restaurant. The 1st 2 trials ended in hung juries. Mr. Tillis and Cobb were 
sentenced to death after the 3rd trial, but in 1983 the verdict was reversed on 
appeal. The 4th trial also ended in a hung jury.

The 2 men were acquitted at the 5th trial in 1987 after Michael Falconer, a 
Lake County prosecutor, came forward after reading an article about the case by 
Rob Warden in the Chicago Lawyer. Falconer said the state's chief witness 
against Mr. Tillis and Cobb had confided to him that the crime actually was 
committed by another man, her boyfriend.

The case against a 3rd man who was co-defendant with Mr. Tillis and Cobb at the 
1st 2 trials was dropped after he pleaded guilty in exchange for being freed.

In 2000, then-Gov. George Ryan granted Mr. Tillis and Cobb pardons based on 
actual innocence.

In one of many twists to the case, the presiding judge at the 1st 3 trials, 
Thomas J. Maloney, later was sent to prison for taking bribes to acquit alleged 
gang members of killings. Critics accused Maloney of helping to convict 
defendants in weak cases to cover up his record of acquitting guilty men in 
exchange for bribes.

Mr. Tillis spent 4 years on death row. After he was freed, he traveled around 
the country to speak at colleges, youth groups, churches and death penalty 
abolition groups. In 2010, he went to Springfield to successfully help lobby 
against the death penalty. At the time of his death, he was working to prevent 
executions of inmates in Georgia and Texas.

In a 1980s interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Mr. Tillis said he got his 
strength to keep fighting the case against him from God.

"He was a strong advocate, saying there is a lot wrong in the criminal justice 
system," Clements said.

He is survived by a daughter and at least 2 sons, Clements said.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

(source: Chicago Sun-Times)