Factors of eligibility for the Death Penalty in Illinois
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Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 13:37:45 -0500 (CDT)
From: Tracy Wojcik <twojcik@sun.soci.niu.edu>
Subject: Death Penalty

Here is a PARTIAL list of factors that make a person eligible for the death
penalty in Illinois (from the Illinois statutes:  720 ILCS 5/90-1).

b)  Aggravating factors.  A defendant who at the time of the commission of
the offense has attained the age of 18 or more and who has been found
guilty of first degree murder may be sentenced to death if:

	1)the murdered individual was a peace officer or fireman killed in
	the course of performing his official duties and the defendant
	knew or should have known that the murdered individual was a peace 
	officer or fireman; or

	2)the murdered individual was an employee of an institution or
	facility of the Department of Corrections, or any similar local
	correctional agency, killed in the course of performing his
	official duties, or the murdered individual was an inmate at such
	institution or facility and was killed on the grounds thereof, or
	the murdered individual was otherwise present in such institution
	or facility with the knowledge and approval of the chief
	administrative officer therof; or

	3)the defendant has been convicted of murdering two or more
	individuals under subsection (a)of this Section or under any law
	of the U.S. or of any state which is substantially similar to 
	subsection (a) of this section regardless of whether the deaths
	occurred as a result of the same act or of several related or
	unrelated acts so long as the deaths were the result of either an
	intent to kill more than one person or of seperate acts which the
	defendant knew would cause death or create a strong probability of
	death or great bodily harm to the murdered individual or another;
	or
	4)the murdered individual was killed as a result of the hijacking
	of an airplane, train, ship, bus, or other public conveyance; or

	5)the defendant committed the murder pursuant to a contract,
	agreement or understanding by which he was to receive money or
	anything of value in return for committing the murder or procured
	another to commit the murder for money or anything of value; or

	6)the murdered individual was killed in the course of another
	felony if:
		a)the murdered individual:
		  (i)was actually killed by the defendant, or
		 (ii)received physical injuries personally inflicted by
		 the defendant substantially contemporaneously with
		 physical injuries caused by one another by one or more
		 persons for whose conduct the defendant is legally
		 accountable caused the death of the murdered individual;