Today in Chicago History: Illinois abolishes death penalty
Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 9, according to Tribune archives.
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Front page flashback: March 10, 2011
2011: Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill banning the death penalty in Illinois.
“It is impossible to create a perfect system, free from all errors,” Quinn said moments after signing the law banning the death penalty. “I think it is the right and right thing to abolish the death penalty and punish those who commit heinous crimes – bad people – with life in prison, without the possibility of parole or any chance of release. »
The move comes a decade after former Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on death sentences after a series of men were released from death row after DNA evidence called their guilt into question.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 69 degrees (2021)
- Low temperature: 5 degrees (1984)
- Precipitation: 1.6 inches (1998)
- Snowfall: 5 inches (1999)
1981: The Chicago White Sox have signed Carlton Fisk, the first superstar acquisition of the new ownership group led by Eddie Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf. Yet no contract was signed until nine days later.
Fisk, a 33-year-old all-star for the Boston Red Sox, was declared a free agent on February 12 of that year on a technicality after Red Sox management failed to send him his contract by the December 20 deadline.
April 14, 1981: New White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk greets Chicago fans with a resounding grand slam
But not only did the Sox pursue Fisk, they also won him over with a five-year, $2.9 million contract, shocking Red Sox Nation and the entire baseball world. Einhorn, a successful television executive before buying the White Sox, later told Sports Illustrated that stealing Fisk from Boston was like “stealing Acapulco cliff diving from ABC.”
Fisk ended up playing until age 45, when the White Sox released him to Cleveland in 1993, shortly after breaking the major league record for most games caught. When the White Sox refused to let him into the clubhouse to wish his former teammates good luck in the 1993 playoffs, his relationship with the organization became strained. Despite the feud, Reinsdorf agreed to retire Fisk’s number 72 in a ceremony in 1997.
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