The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) - A man convicted of fatally shooting a Chicago police officer in the head avoided death row and has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Aloysius Oliver, 28, was convicted in January of first-degree murder for shooting Officer Eric. D. Lee. The 37-year-old plainclothes officer was shot on Aug. 19, 2001, while trying to stop Oliver from beating a homeless man in the alley behind Oliver’s South Side home.
Defense attorney Marijane Placek contended that Oliver thought he was acting in self-defense.
But prosecutors said although Lee was in plain clothes, he was wearing a badge and identified himself as a police officer. Two other officers were also on the scene.
At Friday’s sentencing, prosecutors argued that Oliver should be placed on Death Row because of a long history of crime and violence, but defense attorneys insisted he could redeem himself in prison.
Moments before Cook County Circuit Judge John Moran made his ruling, Oliver issued a short apology.
“I’m sorry things had to happen the way they did,” he said.
“These things did not `have to happen,”’ Moran corrected. “You made the choices, and now you’ll have to suffer the consequences.”