Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Politico reports that the man Gov. Blagojevich has named to replace Obama in the Senate, former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, relentlessly pursued the death penalty against a man despite clear evidence that he was innocent and the protest of his own deputy who handled the 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.
That deputy has a lot to say about the case:
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.
"This is something the attorney general should have been concerned about," Kenney, now an assistant public guardian in Cook County, said in an interview. "I knew the prosecutor's job was not merely to secure conviction but to ensure justice was done."
Kenney was not alone in her beliefs. Prior to Cruz's 1985 trial, the lead detective in the case resigned in protest over prosecutors' handling of the case, according to news reports at the time.
And rather than argue Burris' case before the state supreme court, Kenney also stepped down.
"What I took away was that [Burris] wasn't going to do anything to seem soft on crime," Kenney said. "He didn't have the guts."
In her resignation letter, Kenney claimed Burris had "seen fit to ignore the evidence in this case."
"I cannot sit idly by as this office continues to pursue the unjust prosecution of Rolando Cruz," she wrote. "I realized that I was being asked to help execute an innocent man."
Appalling. And it should absolutely disqualify the man for any public office.
Politics
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Barris is running his entire campaign based on the race card. Even though there are no African-American Senators in the Senate, I hope the Dems stand firm on not seating him.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, was on Meet the Press and was very clear he was going to play hardball on this issue right up through this 20+ minute no commercial segment; but at the end he then claimed that as an old trial lawyer, "he was willing to compromise" - which to me completely deconstructed everything he stated in the interview prior to that.
BTW - in that same interview, Reid unsurprisingly but also unequivocably stated he was in complete in agreement with President Bush on the Israel/Hamas issue.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 5, 2009 10:43 AM
I saw him on the Rachel Maddow show and when he spoke with Blagojevich when he made the appointment. I was very unimpressed.
He seemed eager to misrepresent his donation amount to his campaign. Not only did he try to dodge the issue, but he used his substantial persuasive skills to try to paint a picture of how separate Blagojevich's ethics issues were from his appointment. Umm, the main focus of the ethical investigation of Blagojevich is the selling of this Senate seat.
Barris was being unforthcoming (to be generous) when he kept repeating, with his version of argumentative support, that his appointment is completely unrelated to the ethical charges. He also sarcastic downplayed his substantial campaign donations to a former political rival.
In the press conference with Blagojevich, he flippantly challenged a reporter who said he donated $13,000 ("Whoo! That's a lot of money? Really? $13,000?") and on Rachel Maddow he downplayed his "small donation" of "a few thousand dollars".
Not only do I find that completely undesired in a Senator, but I find it particularly disgusting in a former attorney general.
Thanks for this additional information. I am not surprised at all that he would let an innocent man be executed for supposed political gain. Especially considering the history of problems with capital punishment in Illinois, I would hope people would be a little more protective of defendants there.
Posted by: MomTFH | January 5, 2009 11:35 AM
Didn't I see Burris in a red wig and tight shorts on the corner of 43rd & 9th in Manhattan?
(For those of you who are non-New Yorkers, that is -- or was -- a prime hooker hangout. Burris' prostitution might be a different type.)
Posted by: Prup (aka Jim Benton) | January 5, 2009 11:36 AM
Posted by: WScott | January 5, 2009 11:44 AM
I have to give Blagojevich credit on this one. He's not going to go down alone.
Posted by: lukas | January 5, 2009 2:01 PM
...Kenney said. "He didn't have the guts."
Aw, c'mon Harry, sounds just like you.
Posted by: natural cynic | January 5, 2009 2:22 PM
This is the kind of misconduct that I can't seem to get my students to understand. So many of them have the "if you were charged with a crime, you must have done something wrong" attitude. They don't seem to understand that not only were they pursuing the wrong person (violating their rights), they were also not pursuing the person who actually committed the crime, potentially putting others at risk.
I agree completely that this should disqualify Burris from serving in any public office. I am absolutely certain that there is another qualified candidate for the senate in the state of Illinois, another qualified African American, female, or other minority candidate if that corrects an imbalance.
Posted by: dogmeatib | January 5, 2009 6:42 PM
Thanks Ed, you just ruined my relax and have a beer after a long weekend at work; this guy is the worst of dispicable.
A prosecutor with no compassion or sense of justice... of course he's being picked on because he's Hispanic!
The politic, it do play rough in Illinois.
Posted by: kamaka | January 5, 2009 8:50 PM
Have you seen the mausoleum he has ready for himself? Delusional. Just saying,
http://wonkette.com/405196/roland-burris-has-already-constructed-his-terrifying-death-chamber
Posted by: ThirtyFiveUp | January 6, 2009 3:26 PM