Marilyn Mulero -- Chicago

Illinois' female population on death row has dropped by 1, as the
state Supreme Court tossed out the death sentence of a woman who
pleaded guilty to participating in the 1992 slayings of 2 men in
Chicago. The court, in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Michael
Bilandic, upheld the conviction of Marilyn Mulero, but said she should
not have been sentenced by a Cook County judge to death by lethal
injection.

Mulero was 1 of 3 women arrested for the slayings of 2 men in
Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. She claims police violated her
constitutional right to remain silent in forcing her to provide a
statement.


http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/may97/0135.html

Mulero won a new sentencing hearing after an appeals court found a
prosecutorial error in her 1993 trial. The jury in the courtroom of
Cook County Circuit Judge Colleen McSweeney Moore ruled that Mulero
should be sentenced to life without the possibliity of parole for
her role in the killings of Hector Reyes, 21, and Jimmy Cruz, 22,
in Humboldt Park in May 1992.

Prosecutors said Mulero, then 21, Jacqueline Montanez, then 15, and
Madeline Mendoza, then 17, set out to avenge the fatal shooting of a
friend by another gang.

The 3 lured the victims, whom they knew to be rival gang members, to
a park, and as 2 distracted Cruz, Montanez shot Reyes in a public
restroom, according to trial testimony. Montanez then handed the gun to
Mulero, who shot Cruz in the head, according to testimony.

Montanez, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole, won a
new trial on appeal, which is pending. Mendoza pleaded guilty to 1
count of murder and 1 count of conspiracy to commit murder and was
sentenced to 35 years in prison in 1993.


http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/nov98/0360.html