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 C15356, 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 of the Illinois Prisoner Re...
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