The clemency request of Kathy Cecil, a Downstate woman serving a 35-year sentence for first-degree murder for her role in the death of her 2-year-old son, has been denied.
Former Gov. George Ryan denied Cecil’s request and those of two other women represented by the Illinois Clemency Project for Battered Women, a lawyer for the project was told. However, Ryan did act in the case of the fourth prisoner represented by the project.
He reduced the sentence of Joy Brown, convicted of heinous battery in the burning with hot oil of her ex-husband, from six years to three years.
“She praised the Lord and was very grateful to the law students and other volunteers who worked very hard on her petition,” said Margaret Byrne, director of the Illinois Clemency Project for Battered Women. “She will be out in approximately a year.”
Brown, 24, of Collinsville, Ill., was convicted for pouring hot oil on her ex-husband, causing serious burns. She claimed that he had raped her, that she had brandished a pan of cooking oil to get him to leave and that the oil had spilled by accident.
Cecil, 28, of Wood River, Ill., was convicted for her responsibility in the beating death of her son, Michael, by her boyfriend, Keith Bennett, who is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. She was in the house when Bennett squeezed Michael hard enough to perforate his bowel. Neither she nor Bennett sought medical attention for the boy. He died two days later.
Cecil claimed that she was too frozen by fear of Bennett to act. She said he had beaten her, choked her and threatened to kill her and her family.
Mary Becker, Cecil’s attorney with the clemency project, learned of Ryan’s decisions last Tuesday, the day after Ryan’s last day in office.
Cecil “wasn’t surprised,” Becker said. “She sort of expected it after Monday, when he hadn’t done anything.”
Becker said the project will file another clemency petition for Cecil after the mandatory one-year waiting period. Byrne said the project will consider refiling the other petitions, too.
“I think Ryan just got completely enmeshed in the death penalty cases,” Becker said. “There is a new governor. Maybe he’ll be open on some of these things.”
