Burris Sought Death for Innocent Man

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

Former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to replace Barack Obama in the Senate, is no stranger to controversy.

Public fury over the governor's alleged misconduct has masked the once lively debate over Burris' decision to continue to prosecute, despite the objections of one of his top prosecutors, the wrong man for a high-profile murder case.

While state attorney general in 1992, Burris aggressively sought the death penalty for Rolando Cruz, who twice was convicted of raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. The crime took place in 1983.

But by 1992, another man had confessed to the crime, and Burris' own deputy attorney general was pleading with Burris to drop the case, then on appeal before the Illinois Supreme Court.

Burris refused. He was running for governor.

"Anybody who understood this case wouldn't have voted for Burris," Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, told ProPublica. Indeed, Burris lost that race, and two other attempts to become governor.

Burris' role in the Cruz case was "indefensible and in defiance of common sense and common decency," Warden said. "There was obvious evidence that was innocent."

Deputy attorney general Mary Brigid Kenney agreed and eventually resigned rather than continue to prosecute Cruz.

Once Burris assigned Kenney to the case in 1991, she became convinced that Cruz was innocent, a victim of what she believed was prosecutorial misconduct. She sent Burris a memo reporting that the jury convicted Cruz without knowing that Brian Dugan, a repeat sex offender and murderer, had confessed to the crime. Burris never met with Kenney to discuss a new trial for Cruz, Kenney told ProPublica.


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[spiritual_gunfighter]

1. I used to live in the town that this happened in

I had totally forgotten that Roland Burris was the Attorney General when this was going on. It was horrible what happened to Rolando Cruz. Burris pursued this to score political points even though Cruz was innocent.

[PatSeg]

2. I lived nearby

in Woodridge at the time. I had forgotten many of the details, including Burris's role. Burris should have refused the senate seat, as the attention he is getting is hardly positive.

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

3. I wonder why he thought killing an innocent man would score him political points?

[yourguide]

4. By all accounts

he was afraid he'd look soft on crime.

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

5. well now he just looks power hungry. lol.