For decades, Nancy Rish’s attorneys have unsuccessfully tried to wipe away her life sentence for aiding in the murder of a Kankakee businessman who suffocated after being buried alive.
Now her latest bid for freedom turns in part on the words of the very public official who’s trying to keep her locked up for helping to kill Stephen Small in 1987.
Rish’s attorneys argue that cases like hers are what Illinois legislators had in mind when they changed the law in 2015 to give abuse victims a break on their prison sentences. The measure was co-sponsored by then-state Sen. Kwame Raoul, who is now Illinois’ attorney general.
The law calls on judges handing down sentences to weigh evidence that the defendant was abused. It also allows felons to challenge punishments judges have given out if they can show their crimes were related to being abused.
Rish’s lawyers contend that she drove her ex-boyfriend Danny Edwards around as he committed the crime — designed to squeeze $1 million from Small’s family — because Edwards had threatened and abused her. Rish has long said she didn’t know what Edwards was doing as she drove him.
In an appeals court brief, the legal team pointed to an April 2015 state Senate floor debate. They noted that Republican Sen. Dale Righter of Mattoon asked Raoul, a Chicago Democrat, whether the proposed law would apply as a judge sentenced a hypothetical woman who was abused and threatened by her husband before she rode in a car as he robbed a liquor store, leading to her being charged as an accomplice.
Raoul responded, “That’s exactly right, Sen. Righter.”
Three years after that exchange, Raoul was elected attorney general and inherited the Rish prosecution, which had been passed to his office because of a conflict in the Kankakee County state’s attorney’s office. His office opposes her bid for freedom after 33 years behind bars.
Attorney Steven Becker told the Tribune that Raoul’s position on the Rish case is hypocritical and “directly contrary” to his past stance.
But during an online appellate court hearing in December, Assistant Attorney General Erin O’Connell rejected the idea that Raoul’s stance had changed. O’Connell noted the distinction between the law’s call for judges to consider evidence of abuse before sentencing and the portion that allows people to challenge sentences that have been made, as Rish is doing.
O’Connell said that the statute sets “stringent criteria” for challenging a sentence that Rish hasn’t met. She emphasized the extraordinary cruelty of the crime that led to the life term and argued Rish’s lawyers have made procedural errors that should doom the appeal.
A Raoul spokeswoman declined to make the attorney general available for comment.
Small’s family has fought to keep Rish in prison. His sons wrote letters opposing Rish’s 2014 clemency request that described the psychological pain caused by their father’s death. His sons either declined to comment or could not be reached. Stephen Small’s great-grandfather, Len Small, was Illinois’ governor from 1921 to 1929.
Rish was convicted of helping with the plot hatched by Edwards, a small-time Kankakee drug dealer, to kidnap Small, the 40-year-old heir to a local media fortune. Edwards took him to a rural area and buried him in a 6-by-3-foot wooden box outfitted with an air pipe, but Small suffocated. Edwards made calls from pay phones to demand money, and police used call-tracing devices and surveillance to nab Edwards and Rish days after the kidnapping.
Edwards was convicted and sentenced to death, though his punishment was commuted to a life term by then-Gov. George Ryan — Small’s neighbor — as Illinois moved toward ending the death penalty. Rish, now 59 and an inmate at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, has maintained her innocence through more than three decades of legal losses.
Recently, her lawyers have focused on the state law change that allows abuse victims to seek new sentences if they can show, among other things, that evidence of domestic violence wasn’t presented at sentencing and likely would have swayed the punishment handed down.
Rish’s lawyers argued in Kankakee County court filings in recent years that her “unwitting participation” stemmed from Edwards’ abuse and intimidation. Edwards threatened Rish with a gun and said he would kill her and her then-8-year-old son if she did not help him with tasks she didn’t understand, her lawyers contended.
Judge Michael Sabol shot down Rish’s bid for a new sentence at a hearing in Kankakee in July 2019, finding that the evidence of abuse likely would not have changed the sentence handed down for a particularly ghastly crime. That ruling led to the current appeal.
Rish’s lawyers have argued to the appellate court that Sabol’s ruling should be overturned because the judge failed to cite any technical problem with their petition. They also dispute the finding that the evidence would not likely change the sentence. To support that, the lawyers’ appeal brief noted Raoul’s comments as a lawmaker and said they have “exactly the type of evidence warranting sentencing relief as envisioned by the legislators.”
O’Connell, from the attorney general’s office, responded in a court filing that the judge was right to dismiss the petition because Rish’s lawyers failed to prove their claims that the evidence was new and likely to change the sentence. O’Connell noted that the judge who sentenced Rish was aware of many of the abuse allegations because they were aired at trial.
O’Connell’s argument highlighted the gravity of the crime that led to the life sentence. She cited a previous Illinois Supreme Court ruling saying that “it is difficult to envision a more violent death than that suffered by Mr. Small.”
What to know about Illinois reinstating federal jobless aid programs
Unemployment benefits to be restored
Illinois is working on restoring unemployment benefits to nearly 450,000 people whose benefits expired temporarily after President Donald Trump delayed signing a $900 billion coronavirus relief package.
Roughly 447,500 Illinoisans were at risk of losing jobless benefits entirely when multiple federal programs tied to the $2.2 trillion stimulus package from last spring expired Dec. 26, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
While it’s unclear when benefits will be restored in Illinois, state and federal labor officials say people will be paid for the end of December, even though the bill extending federal pandemic unemployment programs was not signed until Sunday, the day after benefits expired.
Here’s the latest on what the stimulus package means for unemployed Illinoisans.
Lapsed benefits will be paid
The state is waiting on guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor on how to reinstate and implement the federal programs, but plans to pay any missed benefits retroactively, spokeswoman Rebecca Cisco said.
The U.S. Department of Labor said in a statement Tuesday most programs will remain unchanged, but it will deliver guidance to help states implement new programs “in the near future.”
“As states are implementing these new provisions as quickly as possible, the Department does not anticipate that eligible claimants will miss a week of benefits due to the timing of the law’s enactment,” the statement said.
Extra $300 in weekly benefits
The state will pay out an enhanced federal jobless benefit of $300 per week for up to 11 weeks under the new relief package for anyone eligible for an underlying unemployment compensation benefit.
That is half the amount of the extra $600 in weekly federal unemployment benefits most Americans received from the last stimulus package. Those payments expired in late July.
Extension of jobless aid programs
People who exhausted their 26 weeks of regular state unemployment benefits were eligible to receive up to 13 additional weeks of federal benefits under the pandemic relief package passed in the spring.
Congress has extended that program for 11 weeks, and allowed states to continue paying benefits through April 5 for those who haven’t reached the maximum number of weeks. The program, known as Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, will close to new applicants March 14.
The legislation also continues funding the state’s extended benefits program, which provides up to 20 weeks of benefits during high times of unemployment for people who have exhausted all other programs. The program had been set to reduce to 13 weeks when other federal programs expired Dec. 26, but the legislation means people will be eligible for up to 20 weeks.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for gig and self employed workers was also extended and now provides up to 50 weeks of benefits, up from 39 weeks. The program closes to new applicants March 14, and will pay benefits through April 5.
New program for mixed-income workers
As part of the latest legislation, Illinois will set up a new program allowing mixed-income earners, who are self-employed and also earn some regular wages, to apply to federal programs. Previously, those types of workers were only eligible to receive regular state benefits.
