CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - There was a hearing Tuesday morning for a man seeking clemency after being sentenced to death for the 1985 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl from Downers Grove in downstate Gillespie.
Bridgett Drobney’s mother, Cathy, who’s 88-years-old, testified during the hearing before members of the Prisoner Review Board.
“They took my baby to a cornfield, where Turner proceeded to torture, rape and murder her. Robert Turner stabbed my 16-year-old daughter many times and finally slit her throat because she was making too much noise, when she was calling desperately, repeatedly, ‘daddy, help me!’” Cathay Drobney recalled.
The State’s attorney who prosecuted Turner, Vince Moreth, said he never showed remorse, never asked for forgiveness. He said during the trial, Turner carved “F—Moreth” into the defense table with his handcuffs. He told WBBM Turner is a “piece of (blank).”
Turner, his brother and another man, posed as police and pulled over a car driven by Bridgett Drobney, before she was raped and murdered.
Her sister Kelly was 12 at the time.
“If he is granted clemency, a message will be sent that, in Illinois, it’s ok rape, torture, and murder a child,” Kelly Drobney said to the board.
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The Illinois Prison Project’s Candace Chambliss also testified.
“Clemency is recognition that people change and grow…Mr. Turner has submitted a petition and a supplement to that petition, in which he set forth his rehabilitation and his deep faith,” Chambliss noted.
Moreth countered Chambliss, saying “they always find God in jail.”
“It’s the B.S. excuse, excuse my French, but that’s exactly what it is,” Moreth argued.
Turner waived a public clemency hearing.
The Prisoner Review Board called today's hearing a "Public Protest Hearing." The board will weigh the testimony and clemency petition and make a recommendation to the governor.
No timeframe has been given.
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