People Ex Rel. Daley v. Strayhorn

The respondent, Earl Strayhorn, a judge in the circuit court of Cook County, sentenced the defendant, Manuel Zarco, also a respondent in this proceeding, to 40 years’ imprisonment for murder. Although the defendant had previously been convicted of second degree murder in Rhode Island for a different slaying, the respondent trial judge refused the prosecutor’s request to hold a death penalty hearing on the current offense under section 9 — 1 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 9 — 1). The trial judge also refused to sentence the defendant to natural-life…