March 02, 2005

`Execution-style' hits

Chicago police and federal agents joined forces Tuesday to investigate the slayings of a federal judge's husband and mother, killings that law-enforcement sources were calling "execution-style" hits.

With no arrests in the case and authorities exploring a range of possible motives, U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow and her surviving family members were in an undisclosed location under round-the-clock security.

Investigators on the task force formed Tuesday believe that Lefkow's husband and mother were forced into the basement, made to lie on the floor, then shot multiple times, including in the head and chest, the sources said.

From blood patterns on the floor, it appeared that Michael F. Lefkow, 64, remained alive briefly Monday and tried to move, a source said. The judge's mother, Donna G. Humphrey, 89, was apparently forced to the basement without the two walking canes she required to get around. The canes were found elsewhere in the house.

The Liberal Leftist Supremes must look to the state of Illinois with joy as the Governor took it upon himself to end the death penalty (as they'd really like to do) and decided that all of Illinois's Death Row inmates would pay enough of a penalty by serving their sentences for life.
Now look what happens--horrible, despicable, atrocious murders of a federal judge's family!
If someone wants to kill someone else in Illinois now, they can use underage killers with even more impunity after yesterday's SCOTUS decision.
How can the U.S. be an example to budding democracies in the Middle East if our Courts rule by seeming divine right and the resulting lawlessness is no better than the situation in Baghdad where one of the judges in Saddam's case and his lawyer son were assassinated yesterday?
My prayers and sympathies go out to Judge Lefkow and her surviving family members.
May the Lord send them comfort in your deep sorrow and loss and may He welcome the souls of the victims--these murders were just horrendous!
I pray this man and elderly lady didn't suffer too much.