City Room™ - Politics - State's Attorney Will Continue Seeking Death Penalty

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State's Attorney Will Continue Seeking Death Penalty
Produced by Tony Arnold on Thursday, June 04, 2009

Congressman Mike Quigley wants more money for public defender office (AP/File)

Prosecutors in Cook County say they will continue seeking the death penalty. That's in response to a request from the public defender's office to take the option of capital punishment off the table. The public defender says his office has run out of money used specifically to defend clients facing the death penalty. Sally Daly is with the state's attorney's office. She says a lack of money is no reason to change the judicial process.

DALY: The courts cannot dictate to the states attorney which cases the state will choose to seek death on and a lack of funding on the part of the public defender does not change that.

Daly says the public defender could shift money from other funds to pay for death penalty defenses. Meantime, Congressman Mike Quigley says he's encouraging the State of Illinois to help fund the public defender's budget, or, he says, remove the death penalty as an option during trial.