Death penalty culture is changing: Murphy

Delbert Lee Tibbs, whose “criminal injustice” story was recounted in the film, “The Exonerated,” was among friends and admirers of Sheila M. Murphy at the Oct. 23 reception where she was honored by the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Tibbs was found guilty of rape and murder in Florida, sent to its Death House, and not exonerated for eight years. He was familiar with the courage Murphy showed, as a judge, in ordering the DNA tests that freed Verneal Jimerson from Cook County’s Death Row.

Like Tibbs, Jimerson was convicted of rape and murder as one of the “Ford Heights Four.” He was incarcerated for 11 years.

Murphy received the coalition’s Cunningham-Carey Award for this and other humanitarian involvements that include serving on the Constitution Project Death Penalty Initiative and as vice chair of the International Bar Association Judge’s Forum.

In her remarks at the reception, Murphy spoke of “a global transference of human rights” that included action by the European Union to prohibit the death penalty in its countries.

She also pointed to South Africa, where a constitutional court now stands on the site of a former notorious prison where instruments of torture had been used.

Murphy praised the ISBA Assembly and President Jack C. Carey, who presented the award to her, for supporting abolishment of capital punishment in Illinois. “The culture is changing,” she said.

Also honored at the Oct. 23 event was Jane T. Bohman, the coalition’s executive director since 1998. She is retiring to relocate to Ohio.

Bohman’s replacement will be Chicago attorney Jeremy P. Schroeder, who has been legislative and policy director of the Service Employees International Union, Local 880.