Deanna's Daydreamer
09-03-2009, 08:32 PM
Court rejects Mertz appeal of death sentence in McNamara slaying
By DAVE FOPAY - H&R Staff Writer
CHARLESTON - Recalling evidence of "the heinous nature" of the murder of an Eastern Illinois University student eight years ago, a Coles County judge decided Tuesday there was no reason her killer shouldn't be on death row.
Circuit Judge Gary Jacobs cited what he called "overwhelming evidence" against Anthony B. Mertz in the killing of Shannon McNamara. The judge dismissed a post-conviction request from Mertz's appellate attorneys that asked that he receive a sentence other than the death penalty.
Mertz was not in the courtroom while his attorneys argued and attacked a petition that contended his trial attorneys weren't effective in 2003 when a jury convicted him and then decided he should receive the death penalty. Mostly, the petition claimed trial attorneys Paula Phillips of Effingham and David Williams of Fairfield didn't do enough to combat the prosecution's attempt during sentencing to tie Mertz to another killing and to an arson.
Mertz is now 34 and sitting on death row at the Pontiac Correctional Center. He was also an Eastern student at the time and lived in Charleston from the apartment where McNamara, who was from Rolling Meadows, was living.
Trial evidence indicated that he entered the apartment by cutting a window screen and then attacked McNamara, killing her by choking her and shoving a wash cloth down her throat, and slashed her body multiple times. DNA taken from the blood under McNamara's fingernails matched Mertz's, and his credit card was found in her apartment, police said.
The case returned to the trial-court level for arguing new issues after the Illinois and U.S. Supreme Courts denied Mertz's appeal, which was of the death sentence only, not his conviction. Jacobs' ruling Tuesday means the state Supreme Court will weigh the same issues and the case would then likely go to federal courts if the state high court agrees with Jacobs.
If those appeals don't go in Mertz's favor, there still wouldn't be an execution date set because the death penalty moratorium former Gov. George Ryan put in place in 2003 is still in effect.
The chief argument Joshua Sachs of the Illinois Appellate Defenders Office made was that Mertz's trial attorneys should have done more to prevent jurors from hearing evidence at sentencing that he might have committed the other crimes.
The prosecution tried to show that Mertz might have killed before, on June 29, 1999, when Amy Warner was stabbed to death in her Charleston home. There was also evidence that he might have been behind the apparent arson on Feb. 13, 2000, of an under-construction apartment building near where Mertz lived.
Illinois Assistant Attorney General Erin O'Connell argued that there was nothing to show that the evidence of the other crimes was what made the jury decide to sentence Mertz to death.
"Shannon McNamara was subjected to serious, almost torture over an extended period of time," she said. She also noted evidence of Mertz's attacks on other women, fights with jail inmates and other instances of violence were taken into account by the jury.
http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2009/09/03/news/state/1043507.txt
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victims website, and other links:
http://www.shannonmcnamara.com/
http://www.fightbackproductions.com/about/shannons-story
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2003/03/01/news/news-241055.txt
http://www.girlsfightback.com/About-Us
Read the womens responses to THIS blogger:
http://www.bloggernews.net/119918
You must have adobe reader to see this case; do NOT read this case if you are not prepared to be shocked:
http://www.ncdsv.org/images/State%20of%20Illinois%20vs%20Mertz.pdf
By DAVE FOPAY - H&R Staff Writer
CHARLESTON - Recalling evidence of "the heinous nature" of the murder of an Eastern Illinois University student eight years ago, a Coles County judge decided Tuesday there was no reason her killer shouldn't be on death row.
Circuit Judge Gary Jacobs cited what he called "overwhelming evidence" against Anthony B. Mertz in the killing of Shannon McNamara. The judge dismissed a post-conviction request from Mertz's appellate attorneys that asked that he receive a sentence other than the death penalty.
Mertz was not in the courtroom while his attorneys argued and attacked a petition that contended his trial attorneys weren't effective in 2003 when a jury convicted him and then decided he should receive the death penalty. Mostly, the petition claimed trial attorneys Paula Phillips of Effingham and David Williams of Fairfield didn't do enough to combat the prosecution's attempt during sentencing to tie Mertz to another killing and to an arson.
Mertz is now 34 and sitting on death row at the Pontiac Correctional Center. He was also an Eastern student at the time and lived in Charleston from the apartment where McNamara, who was from Rolling Meadows, was living.
Trial evidence indicated that he entered the apartment by cutting a window screen and then attacked McNamara, killing her by choking her and shoving a wash cloth down her throat, and slashed her body multiple times. DNA taken from the blood under McNamara's fingernails matched Mertz's, and his credit card was found in her apartment, police said.
The case returned to the trial-court level for arguing new issues after the Illinois and U.S. Supreme Courts denied Mertz's appeal, which was of the death sentence only, not his conviction. Jacobs' ruling Tuesday means the state Supreme Court will weigh the same issues and the case would then likely go to federal courts if the state high court agrees with Jacobs.
If those appeals don't go in Mertz's favor, there still wouldn't be an execution date set because the death penalty moratorium former Gov. George Ryan put in place in 2003 is still in effect.
The chief argument Joshua Sachs of the Illinois Appellate Defenders Office made was that Mertz's trial attorneys should have done more to prevent jurors from hearing evidence at sentencing that he might have committed the other crimes.
The prosecution tried to show that Mertz might have killed before, on June 29, 1999, when Amy Warner was stabbed to death in her Charleston home. There was also evidence that he might have been behind the apparent arson on Feb. 13, 2000, of an under-construction apartment building near where Mertz lived.
Illinois Assistant Attorney General Erin O'Connell argued that there was nothing to show that the evidence of the other crimes was what made the jury decide to sentence Mertz to death.
"Shannon McNamara was subjected to serious, almost torture over an extended period of time," she said. She also noted evidence of Mertz's attacks on other women, fights with jail inmates and other instances of violence were taken into account by the jury.
http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2009/09/03/news/state/1043507.txt
--------------------------------------------------------------
victims website, and other links:
http://www.shannonmcnamara.com/
http://www.fightbackproductions.com/about/shannons-story
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2003/03/01/news/news-241055.txt
http://www.girlsfightback.com/About-Us
Read the womens responses to THIS blogger:
http://www.bloggernews.net/119918
You must have adobe reader to see this case; do NOT read this case if you are not prepared to be shocked:
http://www.ncdsv.org/images/State%20of%20Illinois%20vs%20Mertz.pdf