Acting on a jury's recommendation, a Cook County judge...

Acting on a jury's recommendation, a Cook County judge sentenced Ricardo Harris to death for the May 13, 1999 slayings of Dipak Patel and Ambalal Patel, 2 store employees. Circuit Judge David Sterba handed down the 1st death sentence in Cook County since former Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of more than 150 death row inmates in 2003 before he left office, and only the 3rd statewide since the executive order was issued. Last week, a jury in the Bridgeview courthouse convicted Harris of double murder.