Record #: R2017-396   
Type: Resolution Status: Failed to Pass
Intro date: 5/24/2017 Current Controlling Legislative Body: Committee on Public Safety
Final action:
Title: Call for Illinois Prisoner Review Board to reject parole petition of George Knights
Sponsors: Burke, Edward M.
Attachments: 1. R2017-396.pdf
Related files: R2019-362








RESOLUTION


WHEREAS, The Illinois Prisoner Review Board will hold a hearing on June 21, 2017, to allow for public testimony regarding a request for parole by George Knights, inmate number CI5356, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of two Chicago police officers in the summer of 1970; and

WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of this event by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and

WHEREAS, On July 17, 1970, Police Officer Anthony Rizzato and Sergeant James Severin were patrolling the Cabrini Green Housing Complex when they were shot and fatally wounded by assailants firing from the window of a high-rise; and

WHEREAS, At the time of their assassinations, Police Officer Anthony Rizzato and Sergeant James Severin were protecting the citizens of Cabrini Green by participating in the Chicago Police Department's volunteer Walk & Talk program; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Anthony Rizzato and Sergeant James Severin were shot in cold blood to seal a pact between two rival gangs; and

WHEREAS, An intensive investigation led to the arrest and conviction of George Knights and Johnnie Veal, who were sentenced to life in prison in early 1972; and

WHEREAS, At the time of their deaths, Police Officer Anthony Rizzato and Sergeant James Severin were thirty-seven and thirty-eight years old, respectively; and

WHEREAS, The time which has passed does not diminish the pain and grief felt by the loved ones of Police Officer Anthony Rizzato and Sergeant James Severin; and

WHEREAS, The Illinois Prisoner Review Board will vote on the petition for parole at a future date that has yet to be announced; now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council assembled this twenty-fourth day of May, 2017, call upon the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to reject the parole petition of George Knights; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Craig Findley, Chairman ofthe Illinois Pris...

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