Randall ‘Madman’ Miller wanted out under the First Step Act from life in prison. He took part in a couple’s killings near Richmond in 1993, slitting the man’s throat, and other violence during a ‘war’ with the Hells Angels.
In 1994, Gary Gauger was wrongfully placed on death row, but was proven innocent a few years later. After his sentence was overturned, Gauger was profiled in a 2000 play called “The Exonerated.”
Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law and School of Communication hosted a dramatic reading of the play Thursday a reading that has a connection to the University because Gauger was a death row client at NU’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.
“I was one of the lucky people… my friends were behind me, they went to Chicago (and) tried to get lawyers,” Gauger said. “I also realized how totally screwed this up was, and I went into (the experience) realizing I’ve got to turn this into a positive experience.”
Northwestern Now
Pritzker Law and School of Communication present âThe Exoneratedâ April 15
Alumni Harry Lennix and Katrina Lenk and School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson are featured in the April 15 reading of The Exonerated.
Stage and screen star Harry Lennix (C â86), School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson and Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk, a graduate of Bienen School of Music, will be featured in a dramatic reading of âThe Exoneratedâ at 6:30 p.m. CDT, Thursday, April 15.
Co-presented by Northwesternâs Pritzker School of Law and School of Communication, this special online event recognizes the 10th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois and the role of the Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) in its overturning.
The Land Conservancy of McHenry County hosts Native Plant Gardening Webinars this spring The Land Conservancy of McHenry County is offering low-cost and free webinars on gardening with native plants during March and April. Courtesy of TLC
Updated 3/6/2021 1:06 AM
The Land Conservancy of McHenry County is hosting a variety webinars in March and April that cover native plant, gardening and nature topics. Each webinar is $5 or free. Advance registration is required. More information is available at www.ConserveMC.org.
• Native Shrubs for the Home Landscape: Native shrubs provide year-round beauty as well as food and nesting habitat for birds and pollinators. Sarah Michehl from TLC will share information on native shrubs appropriate for the home landscape. Foundation plantings, privacy hedgerows, and species to feature will be covered from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, March 11. Cost is $5. Register at www.ConserveMC.org
Scott Reeder: Temper justice with a little mercy
By Scott Reeder
I once spent Valentine’s Day on Illinois’ death row.
This week I couldn’t help thinking about the strangest Valentine’s experience I’ve ever had. I spent February 14, 2000, in the death row visitor’s room at the Pontiac Correctional Center.
I was there to interview a mentally-ill death row inmate who had become lost in the system. His schizophrenia had incapacitated him to such a degree that he couldn’t assist with his appeals.
When making arrangements for the interview, I hadn’t thought about it being Valentine’s Day. The realization hit me when I walked through the prison gates and surveyed the visitor’s room.