Word: commitments
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Page Seven trial comes at a moment of extraordinary soul-searching for the Illinois justice system. Earlier this month Anthony Porter, who has an IQ of 51, was freed from death row after serving 16 years for a double murder he did not commit. At the time of his trial, Porter could not afford an investigator to work on his case, and his lawyer called a grand total of three defense witnesses. Porter was freed when a Northwestern University journalism class investigated his case and obtained a confession from another man. A key prosecution witness, who later recanted, now says...
...another Illinois case this month, four men who served up to 18 years for a double murder they did not commit reached a $36 million settlement with Cook County. In their suits, the so-called Ford Heights Four charged that the sheriff's office fabricated evidence and ignored or hid leads pointing to the four men who actually committed the crime. In the past dozen years, Illinois has freed 11 men from death row--one less than it has executed since 1977. Nine of the freed men were black or Latino...
Finally, a former High Balsam resident named Grace Munger has reappeared in town, hectoring everyone to join the "Millennium Birthday March for Jesus" that she is organizing, spurred on, she claims, by divine inspiration. Much of her bullying is directed at Margaret, who refuses to commit herself or her church to this sort of public demonstration. "We need less display," Margaret lectures Grace, "and more unassuming deeds behind the scenes." Privately, though, Margaret worries, "Am I just being a snob...
...alternatives to suicide by developing a new and caring relationship with oneself. Bertrand Russell in his autobiography recalled that "there was a foot path leading across the fields to New Southgate, and I used to go there alone to watch the sunset and contemplate suicide. I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics." Randolph Catlin was chief of the Mental Health Service at University Health Services until...
...ready for another Dr. Death spectacular. On Monday jury selection began in the fifth death-related trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, this time on first-degree murder charges. Having escaped conviction four times before for helping terminally ill patients commit suicide, Kevorkian may be facing his most sensational legal battle yet. It combines shocking TV drama -- Kevorkian?s videotaped killing of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old suffering from Lou Gehrig?s disease, which was aired on "60 Minutes" last year -- with a high-stakes legal issue: Should Kevorkian be found guilty on charges of first-degree murder...