Ill. atty: Burris unethical in slay case

CHICAGO, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A Chicago attorney says Roland Burris should decline a U.S. Senate appointment because he failed to stop the murder prosecution of an innocent man.

Mary Brigid Kenney, now a lawyer for the Cook County Public Guardian, resigned from Burris' Illinois Attorney General's office in 1992 after Burris refused to grant a new trial to a man whose conviction for killing a 10-year-old girl was eventually overturned.

Kenney told Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times that Burris displayed unethical behavior in not listening to her pleas to back off the prosecution of Rolando Cruz for the 1983 abduction, rape and murder of Jeanine Nicarico in DuPage County, Ill. DNA evidence ultimately cleared Cruz of the slaying.

Burris was appointed to the U.S. Senate by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat vacated by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, a move that was blocked by Senate leaders because of corruption allegations against the governor.

"In accepting this appointment to the Senate, Mr. Burris has done what was good for him, paying no heed to what is right or wrong, just as he did with Rolando Cruz," Kenney told the newspaper.

A Burris spokesman did not respond to requests for comment, the Sun-Times said.