USA - Illinois. A jury said that Brian Dugan should be executed

A suburban Chicago jury said today that Brian Dugan should be executed for the 1983 rape and killing of a girl, Jeanine Nicarico, 10, white. It is a case that helped lead to landmark death penalty reforms in Illinois, including a moratorium on executions. Dugan, 53, white, is already serving a life sentence, and had been convicted in two other murders, including that of a 7-year-old girl in 1985. The jury's decision follows years of court battles in which two other suspects were tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and spent more than 10 years in prison before being exonerated. They ultimately were awarded millions of dollars to settle wrongful prosecution lawsuits. Rolando Cruz spent 11 years in prison, much of it on death row, before his acquittal Nov. 3, 1995 during his third trial. A month later, prosecutors dropped charges against Alejandro Hernandez after his second conviction was overturned. Stephen Buckley won release in 1987. The fallout that came after Cruz's acquittal was historic: Four DuPage County sheriff's officials and 3 prosecutors, known as the DuPage 7, were charged with conspiring to frame him. The men were acquitted in 1999. Former Gov. George Ryan cited the Nicarico case as an example of a broken system when he enacted a 2000 moratorium on executions and later commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates to life in prison without parole. Dugan had long offered to plead guilty to Jeanine's slaying if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors steadfastly resisted and Dugan eventually pleaded guilty in July in hopes of persuading a jury to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.