Downstate prosecutor says Quinn’s last-minute clemency decision ‘appalling’

Pat Quinn’s clemency decisions in his final moments as Illinois governor are drawing more criticism.

The state’s attorney in southwestern Illinois’ Madison County, Tom Gibbons, considers it “appalling” that Quinn cut in half the prison term of a woman who fatally set her husband on fire.

Quinn offered no explanation for reducing Tammy Englerth’s 40-year prison sentence for the 2005 death of 30-year-old Christopher Englerth. She’s now eligible for parole in 2025, rather than in 2045 as first projected.

Her clemency petition says she was chronically abused while married.

Quinn’s decision Monday to void the remaining prison terms of two men convicted of separate Chicago-area killings were criticized by the Cook County state’s attorney as a “secretive maneuver” that slighted victims.

Quinn’s former spokeswoman didn’t immediately have comment.

JIM SUHR, Associated Press