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Multiple executions nothing new

Last year's execution of John Wayne Gacy at Stateville will be followed by
a double execution scheduled at the prison for this spring.

Two condemned killers are supposed to be executed at the same time.
Does that shock you?

It shouldn't. Multiple executions used to be very typical in Illinois.

They've happened many times.

On March 22, Hernando Williams, 39, of Chicago and James Free, 41, of Glen
Ellyn are scheduled to die at Stateville by lethal injection. If they're
executed together, this would be the first multiple execution in Illinois
since Oct 17, 1952.

That's when LeRoy Lindsay and Berenice Davis were executed in the Cook
County Jail's electric chair.

Between 1928 and 1962, electric chairs at three locations in the state were
used to execute 96 men and two women. On 20 of those execution dates, two,
three and even four killers were executed at the same time.
The first use of an electric chair in Illinois was a triple execution at
Stateville. On Dec. 15, 1928, John Brown, Claude Clark and Dominick
Bressette were executed for a murder in Lake County.

The last public hanging in Illinois was a triple execution in front of the
Will County Jail in Joliet. Charles Duschowski, Walter Stalesky and Robert
Torrez were hung on July 14, 1927. Five killers were scheduled to die on
the gallows at the same time for the murder of an assistant warden at the
old prison.

But two of the killers escaped from jail before the execution. One was
captured and hung at a later date and the other was never seen again.
Multiple executions in Illinois includes two quadruple electrocutions. On
Oct. 16, 1931, Frank Jordan, Charles Rocco, John Popescue and Richard
Sullivan were executed together at the Cook County Jail.

In the second quadruple execution, a woman was electrocuted at the Menard
Correctional Center. Hazel Johnson was executed on Dec. 11, 1931 along with
Henry Pannier, Willie Green and James Jackson.

On Jan. 28, 1938, another woman died during a double execution at Menard.
The two convicted killers were Marie Porter and Angelo Giancola.
During the years of execution by electric chairs, Stateville had two triple
executions; Menard had a quadruple, two triple and a double execution; Cook
County had 12 double, one triple and a quadruple execution.
Last August, Arkansas executed three men on the same day. Officials said
then that multiple executions reduce stress for workers who have to
administer the death sentence and saves taxpayers money.

But if we want to save some tax money in this state, I would recommend that
corrections officials simply close the grounds at Stateville to spectators
and the press during an execution. This way dozens of extra guards and
state troopers wouldn't be needed to control the crowd.

A three-ring circus atmosphere with hundreds of young people who were
partying surrounded the prison grounds during Gacy's execution last year.
That young crowd was an ugly sight.