http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi
Prosecutors insist pardoned were guilty
January 11, 2003
BY FRANK MAIN CRIME REPORTER
Former prosecutor Jeff Warnick could not believe it when Gov. Ryan told the world Friday that Madison Hobley helped catch a neighbor's baby and save its life after he escaped from a burning apartment building in 1987.
Hobley--one of the four Death Row inmates the governor pardoned--was convicted of setting the fire, killing his wife, son and five others at 1121-23 E. 82nd.
Warnick said he is still convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hobley was guilty, based on the physical evidence from the fire.
Governor, Birkett clash over Nicarico
BY DAN ROZEK STAFF REPORTER
"You want to commute his sentence, governor? Fine. But don't say he was innocent," said Warnick, an arson expert who investigated the blaze while he was in the Cook County state's attorney's office.
Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine and three prosecutors who worked on the four cases appeared disgusted with Ryan's decision Friday night, saying he usurped the judicial process and was simply wrong on the issues of the cases.
"Our outgoing governor took an outrageous and unconscionable step in pardoning four convicted murderers,'' Devine said at a news conference. "The system is broken, and the governor started to break it today. Every expectation we have is he will continue that process tomorrow. This is something he can walk away from but the rest of us will be left behind to try and put it back together."
Hobley claims that police tortured a confession from him. Defense attorneys have pointed to a gas can they contend was planted to link him to the crime. But Warnick called the gas can a red herring. He said investigators determined the fire was ignited with gasoline in a stairwell leading up to Hobley's third-floor apartment door. A pool of gasoline was discovered at the threshold of his apartment door that would have required Hobley to walk through the fire. But he was unscathed. "I know fires, and there is no physical way for him to escape that apartment with fire outside the door," he said.
Warnick added that weeks before the fatal blaze, Hobley's wife was staying with a friend because Hobley was abusive to her.
The roommate called police to report that Hobley was making threats. And an officer listened on the phone as Hobley spoke to the roommate. "He threatened to burn out the roommate unless he could speak to Anita," Warnick said.
Peter Troy, a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office, is equally upset that Ryan let Aaron Patterson go free. Patterson was convicted in the April 1986 murders of Vincent and Rafaela Sanchez. He used a paper clip to etch his innocence into a metal bench in an interrogation room, defense attorneys said. The etching said he signed a false statement. But Troy said Patterson never signed his confession, throwing the allegations of torture in the etching into doubt.
Troy said he interviewed Patterson and saw no signs of physical abuse. He allowed Patterson to call his grandmother and a lawyer--and Patterson never complained he was tortured, Troy said.
"To this day, I believe he murdered the Sanchezes," Troy said
Devine, who was expecting Ryan to offer blanket commutations today, said he thought Ryan acted without care for families of the victims, and he said the governor's clemency powers and his actions will be reviewed.
When he was the Cook County state's attorney, Mayor Daley oversaw many of the prosecutions in which prisoners accused police of torturing false confessions out of them. His press office didn't return phone calls
Prosecutors insist pardoned were guilty
January 11, 2003
BY FRANK MAIN CRIME REPORTER
Former prosecutor Jeff Warnick could not believe it when Gov. Ryan told the world Friday that Madison Hobley helped catch a neighbor's baby and save its life after he escaped from a burning apartment building in 1987.
Hobley--one of the four Death Row inmates the governor pardoned--was convicted of setting the fire, killing his wife, son and five others at 1121-23 E. 82nd.
Warnick said he is still convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hobley was guilty, based on the physical evidence from the fire.
Governor, Birkett clash over Nicarico
BY DAN ROZEK STAFF REPORTER
"You want to commute his sentence, governor? Fine. But don't say he was innocent," said Warnick, an arson expert who investigated the blaze while he was in the Cook County state's attorney's office.
Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine and three prosecutors who worked on the four cases appeared disgusted with Ryan's decision Friday night, saying he usurped the judicial process and was simply wrong on the issues of the cases.
"Our outgoing governor took an outrageous and unconscionable step in pardoning four convicted murderers,'' Devine said at a news conference. "The system is broken, and the governor started to break it today. Every expectation we have is he will continue that process tomorrow. This is something he can walk away from but the rest of us will be left behind to try and put it back together."
Hobley claims that police tortured a confession from him. Defense attorneys have pointed to a gas can they contend was planted to link him to the crime. But Warnick called the gas can a red herring. He said investigators determined the fire was ignited with gasoline in a stairwell leading up to Hobley's third-floor apartment door. A pool of gasoline was discovered at the threshold of his apartment door that would have required Hobley to walk through the fire. But he was unscathed. "I know fires, and there is no physical way for him to escape that apartment with fire outside the door," he said.
Warnick added that weeks before the fatal blaze, Hobley's wife was staying with a friend because Hobley was abusive to her.
The roommate called police to report that Hobley was making threats. And an officer listened on the phone as Hobley spoke to the roommate. "He threatened to burn out the roommate unless he could speak to Anita," Warnick said.
Peter Troy, a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office, is equally upset that Ryan let Aaron Patterson go free. Patterson was convicted in the April 1986 murders of Vincent and Rafaela Sanchez. He used a paper clip to etch his innocence into a metal bench in an interrogation room, defense attorneys said. The etching said he signed a false statement. But Troy said Patterson never signed his confession, throwing the allegations of torture in the etching into doubt.
Troy said he interviewed Patterson and saw no signs of physical abuse. He allowed Patterson to call his grandmother and a lawyer--and Patterson never complained he was tortured, Troy said.
"To this day, I believe he murdered the Sanchezes," Troy said
Devine, who was expecting Ryan to offer blanket commutations today, said he thought Ryan acted without care for families of the victims, and he said the governor's clemency powers and his actions will be reviewed.
When he was the Cook County state's attorney, Mayor Daley oversaw many of the prosecutions in which prisoners accused police of torturing false confessions out of them. His press office didn't return phone calls
