Sun-Times file
A woman serving a life prison term for her role in kidnapping and burying alive a Kankakee businessman in 1987 can go forward with her attempt to challenge her sentence, according to an Illinois appeals court ruling Thursday.
Nancy Rish, 59, says was forced to participate with her boyfriend Danny Edwards in the kidnapping of Stephen Small because Edwards abused her and threatened to kill her. She claims she didn’t know what Edwards was intending to do.
In an attempt to get Small’s family to pay a $1 million ransom, Edwards buried the businessman in a wooden box equipped with an air pipe — but Small suffocated. Rish drove Edwards around before and after Small was kidnapped.