A family in Illinois spent Tuesday morning begging the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to keep the killer of 16-year-old Bridget Drobney locked up for his entire life.
Drobney was attending a family wedding in downstate Illinois in 1985 when she was raped, tortured, and fatally stabbed while on her way back to a hotel by three men who were posing as police. The family of the 16-year-old attended a hearing by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board on Tuesday, according to FOX 32.
At the time, Drobney was a student at Downers Grove North High School.
The Illinois Prison Project, a group fighting against "regressive policies, racist practices, and a system that treats people as disposable," is arguing to the board that one of Drobney's killers, 63-year-old Robert Turner, deserves clemency and says that he has found Christ.
Cathy Drobney, Bridget's mother, said during a hearing with the board that her daughter didn't get a second chance.
"The Illinois Prison Project says he deserves a second chance, a second chance to torture, rape and murder someone else's daughter. Even as our Bridget begged for her life, Robert Turner did not give her a second chance," Cathy Drobney said.'
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Kelly Weaver, the sister of Bridget Drobney, asked the review board not to release Turner.
"We are here to beg you, please do not release her rapist. Please do not release her torturer. Please do not release her murderer," Weaver said.
Illinois Prison Project Legal Director Candace Chambliss said that "Every person deserves to be treated as a human being."
"Every person deserves to be treated as more than a single act. And even a man charged with an awful crime is still a human being," Chambliss said.
After reviewing the case, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board will present a recommendation to Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, who will then make a final clemency determination.
