2008 Cunningham-Carey Award Dinner honors Sheila Murphy

The Board of Directors of the ICADP celebrated the work of the Honorable Sheila Murphy (Ret.) on Thursday, Oct. 23. We honor her for living out the highest ideals of the law while on the bench, in her representation of death row inmates, and in her advocacy for the abolition of capital punishment.

Biography of Sheila M. Murphy

Honorable Sheila M. Murphy (Retired) was born in Colorado to parents who instilled in her the importance of caring for others. Ms. Murphy graduated from Marquette University in 1959. Prior to graduating from DePaul Law School in 1970, she taught pre-school and grade school children.

Ms. Murphy served as an Assistant Public Defender and as a Federal Defender Panel Attorney. In 1989, Ms. Murphy became an Associate Judge, one of 11 chosen and the only woman in a field of 257 candidates. In 1992, Judge Murphy ran as an independent Democrat and was elected by 1.2 million votes to the Circuit Court of Cook County.

Judge Murphy served as Presiding Judge of the Sixth District from 1992 to1999. During that time, a child care waiting room and domestic violence and drug treatment courts were opened. As Presiding Judge, Judge Murphy did not limit her duties to judicial administration but heard cases as well including the post conviction petition of Verneal Jimerson who had been sentenced to death.

She ordered DNA testing for Mr. Jimerson and co-defendants, which exonerated all of them. During her distinguished judicial tenure, Judge Murphy received many awards including the “Meritorious Service Award” twice from the Illinois Judicial Council.

Upon retirement in 1999, she joined Rothschild, Barry & Myers. Sheila Murphy assisted in the representation of Dominique Green on death row in Texas where he was executed despite the victim’s family’s pleas for his life. She is an active
board member of The Constitution Project’s Death Penalty Initiative and in human rights issues in the ABA and internationally as Vice Chair of the
International Bar Association Judge’s Forum.

Click here to learn more about Dick Cunningham and Jack Carey.

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