<body><div>A woman who was convicted of kidnapping a businessman and killing him by burying him alive in 1987 will be allowed to appeal her life sentence, the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/illinois/index.html">Illinois</a> appeals court has ruled. Nancy Rish, 59, first petitioned in December 2017 for a resentencing hearing so that the court can consider evidence of domestic violence.Rish and her then-boyfriend, Danny Edwards, had kidnapped media heir Stephen Small, of Kankakee, and buried him in a plywood box while waiting for a ransom to be paid.But Small suffocated when a breathing tube running to the surface failed. Rish argues that Edwards abused her and threatened her life if she did not participate in his plan. She also claims that she was unaware of Edwards' plans. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>She has maintained her innocence since her trial in 1988 saying on the day of her sentencing: 'I just want to say I am not guilty of these charges, never was.'Rish's attorney's Steven Becker and Margaret Byrne are now able to dispute her life sentence.A 2015 change in the law allows convicted felons to challenge their sentences if they are able to prove their crimes were committed as a result of being the victim of domestic abuse. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0Hgu1L_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0Hgu1L_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="633" ><figcaption>Nancy Rish, 59, argues that she was forced into the 1987 kidnapping and killing of an Illinois media heir as a victim of domestic abuse</figcaption></figure><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4c0oDM_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4c0oDM_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="457" ><figcaption>In 1988, Rish was sentenced to life in prison for her involvement in the murderous plot</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1fsmtc_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1fsmtc_0b8VidZ300" width="306" height="338" ></figure><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=224cER_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=224cER_0b8VidZ300" width="306" height="338" ></figure>The Illinois appeals court overturned a lower court decision on Thursday which was a win for the attorneys who have been fighting to get her sentence reduced since 2017. In 1987, Edwards, who was 30 at the time, kidnapped Small, 40, in an attempt to get his affluent family to pay a $1 million ransom. Small was the heir to a media fortune as the son of Burrell L. Small, president and chairman of the Mid America Media Group, a broadcasting company that owned 11 radio stations and two cable television stations, and a former publisher of The Daily Journal of Kankakee.<nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>His uncle Len H. Small, also was publisher of The Daily Journal, as well as president of Small Newspapers Inc. Series of Phone Call. And his great-grandfather was Len Small the governor of Illinois from 1921 to 1929. Small was lured to a building he was renovating by the kidnappers pretending to be policemen claiming the building had been broken into on September 2, 1987. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=11jsIB_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=11jsIB_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="873" ><figcaption>Small was an Illinois businessman and media heir who was held at ransom for $1 million</figcaption></figure><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=11AgHX_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=11AgHX_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="411" ><figcaption>Small was lured to a building he was renovating when his kidnappers called him claiming to be police officers alerting him a break in</figcaption></figure>The kidnappers then called Small's wife, Nancy Small, at around 3:30 am requesting the ransom. The family received five calls from the kidnappers and were willing to accept the kidnappers' demands but were unable to decipher the tape-recorded message they received over the telephone directing them where to leave the ransom. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>Edwards buried the businessman in three feet of sand in the forest of Kankakee, Illinois in a homemade wooden box equipped with an air pipe and provisions for water and light but Small eventually died. Rish, who was 26 at the time, drove Edwards around before and after Small was kidnapped.Officers found Small's 1987 maroon Mercedes Benz on two days later at 7 pm and discovered his body three hours later near the Indiana border. A coroner announced that he had been dead for several hours when he was found. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1W6D78_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1W6D78_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="763" ><figcaption>Rish was 26 years old at the time of Small's death&nbsp;</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0wcbiL_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0wcbiL_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="795" ><figcaption>Edwards was 30 years old when he kidnapped and killed Small's</figcaption></figure>Edwards and Rish were quickly apprehended for their crimes and taken into custody the day that Small's body was retrieved. On May 27, 1988, a jury deliberated for less than an hour before sentencing Edwards to a death sentence for which he showed no emotion. His sentence has since been reduced to a life sentence as part of the state's move to end the death penalty. On December 20, 1988, Rish was sentenced to life and 30 years for her involvement in the murderous crime. Before her sentencing she claimed her innocence in an emotional statement, 'I am very sorry for what happened, for what I was associated with. I told the truth . . . at times when I did lie, I admitted it, but then I watched as the officers one by one got up there, under oath and they lied.''To get a conviction the way they did is very, very unfair.'<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1MvVkm_0b8VidZ300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1MvVkm_0b8VidZ300" width="634" height="440" ><figcaption>The Small family was willing to pay the $1 million ransom but could not decipher the message instructing them where to drop the money</figcaption></figure>While Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul co-sponsored the change in the law that is allowing Rish her petition when he was a senator, his office has opposed Rish's requests, claiming that her life sentence was based on the 'horrific nature of the crime in which [she] played an integral part.' A Kankakee County judge had thrown out Rish's request, stating that she failed to provide evidence of domestic violence that would likely 'change the sentence imposed by the original trial court.' The appeals court reinstated the case on the grounds that the lower court shouldn't have judged the facts of her case, but rather whether her petition was properly filed, which has also assigned Rish's case to another judge. </div></body>

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A woman who was convicted of kidnapping a businessman and killing him by burying him alive in 1987 will be allowed to appeal her life sentence, the Illinois appeals court has ruled. Nancy Rish, 59, first petitioned in December 2017 for a resentencing hearing so that the court can consider...

Woman, 59, jailed for kidnapping and buried-alive killing of Illinois media heir in 1987 can appeal her life sentence after claiming she was forced to participate by abusive boyfriend