Debra Evans Samantha Evans

Joshua Evans

"He spit in our faces", said Katy Salhani of Illinois Governor George Ryan, who followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Richard Celeste and commuted the sentences of 168 inmates of Illinois' death row.

Salhani was referring specifically of the commutation of the death sentence of Jacqueline Williams, who in 1996 was convicted of murdering Salhani's sister, Debra Evans, along with two of Evans' children, in order to steal her unborn child.

Debra Evans' son Joshua not only witnessed the murders of his mother and sister, but was then kidnapped and held by the murderers until they eventually decided to kill him too. He was forced to injest poison, and when that didn't immediately kill him, he was strangled to death.

The infant who was torn from Debra's womb survived, was given the name Elijah, and is now 10 years old.

Jacqueline Annette Williams