In addition to bits of information about Burris here, here and here, there’s another intriguing news item about Obama’s possible successor in the U.S. Senate:
The former Illinois attorney general appointed to President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat once drew heavy criticism for his decision to pursue the death penalty for a defendant who was later acquitted.
According to an article in ProPublica, Roland Burris defied his own staff to continue prosecuting Rolando Cruz for the 1983 rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in the Chicago suburbs.
Cruz was twice convicted, but by 1992 another man — a repeat sex offender — confessed to the crime, and in 1995 DNA evidence ruled out Cruz as the rapist and implicated the sex offender.
Well, if Burris ever did ensure the execution of the wrong man, I’m sure he would at least make sure the guy got a giant stone mausoleum listing his accomplishments, just like Burris has already erected for himself.