A jury issued Illinois' first death sentence since then-Gov

A jury issued Illinois' first death sentence since then-Gov. George Ryan emptied death row with a blanket clemency in January.
The jury ruled that Anthony Mertz should be executed for killing a 21-year-old Eastern Illinois University student after he broke into her off-campus apartment in June 2001.
Ryan's successor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has said he will continue the moratorium on executions that Ryan set in 2000, but has no plans to commute more sentences.
"He intends to work with legislators to make sure there is reform before (executions) take place again," spokesman Tom Schafer said.
Mertz was sentenced to death by the same Coles County jurors who earlier in February convicted him of sexually assaulting and strangling Shannon McNamara, whose body was left mutilated on her living room floor.
"This is one of those cases, if ever, that deserves the ultimate penalty of death," prosecutor Ed Parkinson told the jury at the close of a two-week penalty hearing.
Mertz's court-appointed attorneys said they thought the jury's decision signalled a backlash against Ryan's clemency decision.
"It's like, 'We're going to show Gov. Ryan. We're going to fill up that death row again,'" said attorney Paula Phillips.
Mertz testified that he does not remember killing McNamara and that he often suffered blackouts while he was drunk.
"He remembers. He just can't bring himself to tell you that," Parkinson countered. "He's a predator. He found his prey. He killed it, and he mutilated her."