The Illinois Prisoner Review Board on Thursday narrowly voted to deny parole for Maurice Childs, who has been in prison since 1978 for stabbing a 19-year-old college student at least 15 times at an Oak Lawn hotel where she worked and he was a guest.
Mary Leen survived her numerous injuries and has testified many times at hearings in protest of Childs’ repeated requests for parole. She is now married and lives out of state.
During a parole hearing Tuesday in Oak Lawn, Leen told board member Robert Dunne that she feared for the safety of another innocent girl if Childs is released.
“I know he’ll do it again,” Leen said.
Her mother, Betty Leen, who annually collects petitions with thousands of signatures from area residents opposed to his release, said she will be living in fear from the day Childs is released from prison.
But she was elated that his freedom won’t come at for at least another year. Childs is eligible to have another parole hearing in 2006.
“It just made my day,” Betty Leen said after learning of the 7-6 vote to keep Childs behind bars.
Childs, 50, is now an inmate in the high minimum security prison in Jacksonville.
In order to be granted parole, Childs would have had to have eight votes in his favor — a majority of the 15-member Prisoner Review Board — even though only 13 members voted on Thursday, said Kenneth Tupy, attorney for the Prisoner Review Board.
Last year, the board voted 7-6 in Childs’ favor, one vote short of the majority needed. This year seven members voted against him, Tupy said.
Even if Childs is never granted parole, he is eligible to be released in mid-2009 after serving 31 years of his original 50 to 75-year prison sentence.
