Statement by Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow on Appeals Court Opinion Affirming Drew Peterson Conviction in Murder-For-Hire Scheme Against Glasgow

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December 14, 2020

JOLIET –  On December 11, 2020, the Fifth District Illinois Appellate Court denied Drew Peterson’s appeal requesting the reversal of his conviction for solicitation to commit the murder for hire of State’s Attorney James Glasgow by hiring a fellow inmate to murder Glasgow. Below is State’s Attorney Glasgow’s statement:

This is an important decision for the rule of law as well as for all prosecutors. Our society would collapse if criminals could get away with their crimes by murdering the prosecutors before or after being brought to justice. A prosecutor’s family should never be placed at risk because the prosecutor has done their job. I appreciate the skilled work of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, Randolph County State’s Attorney Jeremy Walker, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Illinois Department of Corrections in securing this conviction, and the thoughtful deliberation of the Appellate Court in its decision affirming it.

Glasgow successfully prosecuted Peterson in 2012 for the murder of Peterson’s third wife, Kathy Savio, and Peterson received a 38-year prison sentence. During Peterson’s right of allocution, he stated that Glasgow had destroyed his life. While in the penitentiary, Peterson solicited another inmate to murder Glasgow for $10,000. After the inmate wrote a letter to Glasgow disclosing Peterson’s murder-for-hire plot, Peterson’s scheme to murder Glasgow was captured in full on a listening device. One of the many recordings demonstrated that Peterson feared Glasgow would prosecute him for another murder, relating to the disappearance of Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy. A jury convicted Peterson of solicitation to commit murder for hire. Peterson was sentenced to a prison term of 40 years, to be served back-to-back with the sentence for Savio’s murder.

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