Two males from Illinois have been amongst the 37 individuals spared from dying row by President Joe Biden on Monday. One was a physician who killed a witness in a fraud case and the opposite an ex-Marine who killed a naval officer in Virginia and later pleaded responsible to killing two women in Zion.
Ronald Mikos, a podiatrist, was convicted in Could of 2005 of capturing Joyce Brannon in her church basement residence to maintain her from telling a federal grand jury how he defrauded Medicare. Prosecutors mentioned he shot the nurse and former affected person, who was disabled, six occasions at point-blank vary.
Mikos was the final individual sentenced to dying in Illinois.
Additionally receiving a commutation Monday was Jorge Avila Torrez, who had been sentenced to dying by a federal jury for strangling naval officer Amanda Snell, 20, inside her barrack in Arlington, Virginia, in 2009.
Torrez later pleaded responsible to sexually assaulting and stabbing to dying two women — Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9 — who had been driving their bicycles in Zion in 2005.
Biden mentioned in an announcement that he was commuting the dying sentences of Mikos, Torrez and the 35 others as a result of it was “according to the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in circumstances aside from terrorism and hate-motivated mass homicide.”
“In good conscience, I can’t stand again and let a brand new administration resume executions that I halted,” he added, referring to President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of increasing capital punishment.
Mikos’ attorneys launched an announcement saying they have been “grateful to President Biden for granting him clemency. Providing Mr. Mikos the opportunity of peace and dignity within the closing years of his life is an act of mercy.”
They famous that Mikos “is the oldest man on federal dying row at 76 years outdated and suffers from advancing age-related neurological decline and others critical well being points.”
Mikos had proclaimed he was harmless when he was sentenced in 2006, telling U.S. District Choose Ronald A. Guzman, “Your Honor, I didn’t kill Joyce Brannon.”
Mikos, 57, grew to become solely the second individual sentenced to capital punishment within the historical past of Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
His attorneys had urged on the trial that drug pushers might need hidden narcotics in Brannon’s residence in a North Facet church basement, returned to get them and murdered her.
However the jury discovered him responsible of homicide and of defrauding Medicare out of $1.8 million by billing it for hundreds of foot operations he had by no means carried out.
The jury really helpful the dying penalty regardless of testimony of psychiatrists that Mikos had quite a few psychological issues, together with a schizotypal character and images that protection attorneys mentioned confirmed that he had holes the place mind tissue ought to be.
They mentioned the extreme mind degeneration might need been brought on by abuse of alcohol and his frequent use of a potent prescription painkiller.
No members of Brannon’s household have been current on the sentencing. However prosecutors launched a letter by which her sister, Janet Bunch, mentioned Mikos acted “out of greed and clearly low or no morals.
“When he realized that he was caught and confronted critical private penalties for his greed, he selected to take a human life in a violent and cruel manner. … I really feel that Ronald Mikos forfeited any proper to leniency when he deliberate and carried out the cold-blood execution of my sister.”
Mikos, in the meantime, continues to battle his conviction. In 2020, he filed a movement contending he was not competent to face trial and that his legal professionals weren’t efficient. He additionally claimed that his dying sentence violated the Eighth Modification due to his psychological sickness.
In September this 12 months, a federal decide mentioned a few of Mikos’ contentions merited additional overview and ordered either side within the case to fulfill on the problems he raised. A standing listening to is ready for Feb. 19 earlier than U.S. District Choose Rebecca R. Pallmeyer.
Torrez — the opposite individual from Illinois spared from dying row — was a Marine corporal who lived in a room on the identical deck as Snell’s, eight doorways away.
Torrez later instructed a prisoner within the Arlington County Detention Middle that he entered Snell’s room via her unlocked door, jumped on her as she slept in her mattress, certain her wrists with the facility twine from her laptop computer pc and strangled her with the remainder of the twine, federal officers mentioned.
Torrez acknowledged that he then dragged Snell’s physique from the mattress to a wall locker, the place he hid her stays. Snell was found there by her Navy supervisor on July 13, 2009, when she didn’t report for obligation.
About 5 years later, Torrez pleaded responsible to killing the 2 women in Zion. They have been found by Jerry Hobbs, Laura Hobbs’ father, in a park not removed from their houses in 2005. After 24 hours of interrogation, officers mentioned Hobbs confessed to the murders and he spent 5 years in jail awaiting trial.
Costs have been dropped after DNA proof from Laura’s physique was matched to Torrez’s DNA, which had gone right into a nationwide police database after his arrest in Virginia. Torrez was a good friend of Krystal’s half-brother and was 16 on the time of the ladies’ homicide.
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