SPRINGFIELD – Paula Sims, who murdered her infant daughters, achieved release from prison by writing a law that made her actions less horrible.
Prisoner Review Board members who paroled Sims last year credited her with developing the nation’s first law on post partum depression and psychosis.
Former governor Bruce Rauner signed the law in 2018.
Board members found it established mitigating factors in sentencing for women suffering from post partum depression and post partum psychosis.
At their meeting last Oct. 28, board member Donald Shelton said her sentence would be less if trial were held that day.
According to minutes, “He discusses that the laws have now changed, part by the help of Ms. Sims.”
Former Madison County circuit judge Andy Matoesian held trial for Sims in 1990, on a charge that she murdered daughter Heather in 1989.
She maintained her innocence and swore someone kidnapped Heather.
On a question of post partum depression, she said she did not experience it.
Jurors found her guilty of murder, concealing homicide, and obstructing justice.
As she awaited a decision on a death penalty she admitted Heather’s murder and the murder of daughter Lorelei in 1986.
Jurors rejected a death penalty and expanded Matoesian’s sentencing power to include life in prison, which he imposed.
Years later she challenged her sentence by claiming her lawyer Donald Groshong should have mounted an insanity defense.
At a hearing, psychologist Diane Sanford said Sims suffered from mental illness at the time she killed Heather.
Matoesian denied relief and Fifth District appellate judges affirmed him in 2001.
Former judge Clyde Kuehn wrote, “We examine the question from a 1989 perspective and the state of affairs at that time.”
Kuehn found no indication that Sims displayed any symptoms associated with post partum illnesses.
He found her medical records bore no indication of depression, nor did she complain of symptoms to Groshong.
He found Groshong applied his knowledge to the circumstances.
“Paula was unable to support the use of the insanity defense,” he wrote.
He found she insisted she was innocent and Groshong claimed he believed her.
“Hence, he decided to concentrate his effort and resources to build a defense around what he and Paula believed to be the truth,” he wrote.
“The constitution’s call for effective legal representation exacts a great deal from lawyers but it does not demand the ability to divine the truth.
“The jury determined beyond a reasonable doubt those facts that determined the maximum sentence under the law.”
When Sims petitioned for parole last year, state’s attorney Tom Haine opposed it.
He stated she gave fictional accounts to police, doctors, family, and friends, and also to jurors under oath.
He stated she took substantial steps to conceal her culpability.
He stated the issue of post partum depression had already been litigated.
At the review board’s hearing, psychologist Sanford again spoke for Sims.
According to minutes, she stated that Sims was isolated and people didn’t know what she was going through.
She stated that unless a trained professional evaluated a person, she would not understand what was happening and would not get help.
Psychologist Susan Feingold said it was hard for a rational person to make sense of an irrational woman.
Sims’s counsel Jeb Stone said she saved lives by talking openly about post partum depression and psychosis.
He said much more is known than was known when she was on trial.
Board member Jared Bohland questioned the reality of the psychosis and her change of the kidnapping story before sentencing.
He voted against her, but 12 members voted for parole.
Governor JB Pritzker, content for three years to let Prisoner Review Board members serve without Senate confirmation, suddenly declared confirmation “vitally important” earlier this month.
But since then, the confirmation process has failed.
In a Senate vote Monday evening, member Eleanor Kaye Wilson was denied confirmation. She needed at least 30 votes, but received just 15 in the Democratically controlled chamber.
Also on Monday, member Oreal James resigned his position before the Senate took up his confirmation.
Last week, the Senate denied confirmation to member Jeffrey Mears, who had worked at the board since his nomination by Pritzker a year ago. Mears received 22 votes.
And on March 15, Pritzker withdrew his appointment of board member Max Cerda, who murdered two men in a gang battle at age 16.