Sidebar.

Some infamous Illinois criminals not on Death Row, an d why they're not:

Richard Speck, 48. Originally sentenced to die i n the electric chair for the stabbing and strangulation murders of eight Chicago student nurses on July 14, 1966, on the South Side. Speck was res entenced to eight consecutive terms of 50 to 150 years each after the U.S 2E Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the death penalty of Illinois and ot her states was unconstitutional.

William Heirens, 61. Pleaded guilt y to the strangulation and dismemberment of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan on Jan. 7, 1946, and the murders of Josephine Ross, 43, June 5, 1945; and Fr ances Brown, 33, Dec. 10, 1945, all on the North Side. Heirens, then a 17 -year-old University of Chicago student, agreed to plead guilty and recei ve three consecutive life sentences for the murders to save himself from the electric chair. He has been in prison longer than any other current I llinois inmate.

Patricia Columbo, 34. Sentenced to 200 to 300 years for fatally shooting, stabbing and bludgeoning her father, Frank, 43; he r mother, Mary, 40; and her brother, Michael, 13, May 4, 1976, in Elk Gro ve Village. Columbo and her lover, Frank DeLuca, also serving a 200- to 3 00-year sentence, allegedly committed the murders because Columbo's famil y disapproved of her relationship with DeLuca, who was married, and becau se Columbo stood to inherit money.

Johnny Veal, 37. Serving 100 to 199 years for the July 17, 1970, sniper murders of Chicago police officer s Anthony Rizzato, 35, and James Severin, 38, at the Cabrini-Green public housing project on the Near North Side. Although prosecutors recommended it, the jury did not impose the death sentence.

Robin Gecht, 36. S erving 120 years for the sexual assault and attempted murder of a woman O ct. 5, 1982, on the Near Northwest Side. Gecht allegedly was the leader o f a gang of young men that abducted, killed and mutilated as many as 17 C hicago-area women in 1981 and 1982. The gang included Death Row inhabitan ts Edward Spreitzer and Andrew Kokoraleis, both of whom were convicted of murder. Although he was implicated in homicides, Gecht never was convict ed of murder, the only crime that carries the death penalty.