The Chair, Maybe

>In Peoria, Ill., last week, Judge Herbert C. Paschen quietly sentenced Richard Speck to death for killing eight student nurses in Chicago last summer. Even so, the 25-year-old itinerant seaman will almost certainly manage to postpone his date with the electric chair Sept. 1. Unlike most states, Illinois provides both mandatory review and possible reduction of sentence in all capital cases. One potential appeal: Speck was not fully responsible because he had a history of mental illness and was drunk or drugged at the time of the murders.

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