Charles Albanese was the president of a family manufacturing company in McHenry, Illinois, and a resident of nearby Spring Grove. Between August 1980 and May 1981 three of his relatives died: his wife's grandmother, his mother-in-law and his father. His younger brother was also the subject of an attempted-murder charge. Two Illinois juries convicted him, one in May 1982 and one in October 1982, and he was sentenced to death twice. After appeals in state and federal courts he was executed in Illinois on September 20, 1995. He maintained that he was innocent.
The case drew attention for its length and for its geography. It was tried in two counties, one trial was moved to a third county because of publicity, and the Illinois Supreme Court wrote two separate opinions on the same defendant in 1984.
Allied Die Casting Corporation was a family business in McHenry that made trophies and loving cups. M.J. Albanese, Charles Albanese's father, founded it. Charles and his brother were both officers. Charles was president until September 1980, when a change to the company's arrangements made him treasurer and made his father president. A further change in May 1981, the month his father died, made Charles a vice-president. His brother was vice-president, and then secretary and vice-president after the 1980 change.
Albanese lived in Spring Grove with his third wife and their two daughters. He had three other daughters from his first marriage. A decree from his earlier divorce required him to pay child support and alimony. The Illinois Supreme Court found that he overspent his income in 1980, and the federal court found that he was behind on his mortgage and on support payments that summer.
Mary Lambert, the grandmother of Albanese's wife, died on August 6, 1980. Marion Mueller, his mother-in-law, died on August 18, 1980. The two women had owned real estate jointly, and after Lambert's death Albanese's wife stood to inherit it. His father, M.J. Albanese, died on May 16, 1981. The date of the events behind the attempted-murder charge involving his brother is not on record.
His father was 69.
Albanese was arrested in November 1981. A McHenry County grand jury returned a four-count indictment. It charged him with the murder of his father, the murder of his wife's grandmother, "the attempted murder of his brother," and "the offense of theft from Allied Die Casting Corporation." A Lake County grand jury separately indicted him for the murders of his mother-in-law and of his wife's grandmother.
The case fell into two jurisdictions, McHenry County and Lake County.
Judge Henry L. Cowlin of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit agreed to move the McHenry County trial out of the county because of extensive publicity in the Chicago area and northern Illinois. It was held in Bloomington, in McLean County, in May 1982. The McHenry County State's Attorney, Theodore Floro, prosecuted.
The State's position was that Albanese had killed members of his family to gain control of the company.
Albanese's lawyer at both trials, Richard C. Kelly, was trying his first capital case. The defense denied that Albanese had committed any of the killings. It blamed his brother, arguing that the brother had acted so as to make Charles appear guilty. It also disputed the State's picture of Albanese's finances, saying his condition was not critical.
On May 18, 1982, the McLean County jury convicted Albanese of the murders of his father and of his wife's grandmother. It also convicted him of the attempted murder of his brother and of two counts of theft from the company. The same jury recommended death.
On June 23, 1982, Judge Cowlin sentenced him in the McHenry County court at Woodstock. The sentence was death for the murders, 60 years for the attempted murder of his brother, and five years on each of the two theft counts. The hearing was a formality; Albanese, then 44, showed no visible reaction.
The second trial was held in Lake County. It had been scheduled to begin on August 9, 1982; the verdict came in late October 1982. A Lake County jury found Albanese guilty of the murder of his mother-in-law, Marion Mueller. He waived a jury for the sentencing hearing, so the judge decided his sentence, and the judge imposed death. By December 8, 1982, he had been sentenced to death a second time. Few people in the history of Illinois had been sentenced to death twice for the same crime.
The charge involving Lambert's death was among those brought in Lake County, but it was dropped before the trial there.
The Illinois Supreme Court decided the McHenry County case first. Its opinion in People v. Albanese, 102 Ill. 2d 54, was filed on February 22, 1984, by Justice Clark, and it affirmed the convictions and the sentences. Rehearing was denied on June 4, 1984. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case in October 1984.
The Lake County case followed. In People v. Albanese, 104 Ill. 2d 504, decided on October 19, 1984, Justice Underwood wrote for the court and affirmed the conviction and the death sentence. Albanese had argued, among other points, that the evidence of motive was circumstantial and insufficient, that evidence of his finances and of other offenses should not have been admitted, that the prosecutors' closing arguments were improper, that his trial counsel had been ineffective, that two separate prosecutions for the deaths were unfair, and that the death penalty statute was unconstitutional. The court rejected each claim. It wrote that the State had clearly established that he plotted and carried out the murder for financial gain, and that the multiple-murder factor under the sentencing statute applied because he had been convicted of murdering two or more people.
Chief Justice Ryan and Justice Clark each specially concurred, relying on precedent. Justice Simon agreed that the conviction should stand but dissented from the death sentence, arguing that the statute was unconstitutional. Rehearing was denied on November 30, 1984, and the court set March 12, 1985, as the execution date. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear this case as well, in April 1985. Floro, who had prosecuted the first trial, said he was not surprised and expected Albanese to keep seeking relief in state and federal courts.
Albanese filed petitions under the Illinois Post-Conviction Hearing Act in both counties. The McHenry County petition was denied after a three-day hearing held on May 19 to 21, 1986. The Lake County petition was denied without a hearing. The Illinois Supreme Court consolidated the two appeals and affirmed in People v. Albanese, 125 Ill. 2d 100, on September 29, 1988; rehearing was denied on December 5, 1988. The United States Supreme Court denied review in 1989.
Albanese then sought a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Judge Brian Barnett Duff of the Northern District of Illinois consolidated the petitions and denied them in a lengthy opinion dated May 28, 1993 (Albanese v. McGinnis, 823 F. Supp. 521). His claims included ineffective assistance of trial counsel and the reliability of the State's evidence, and the court rejected them.
The Seventh Circuit, in a panel of Judges Cummings, Bauer and Rovner, affirmed in 1994 (19 F.3d 21), and the United States Supreme Court denied review in 1995.
Albanese filed a successive federal petition on September 12, 1995. The district court dismissed it on September 18 as raising no new grounds and as an abuse of the writ, and it refused a stay of execution. The Seventh Circuit upheld that ruling the next day, September 19, denying a certificate of probable cause and the stay (67 F.3d 301).
Governor Jim Edgar denied clemency on September 19, 1995. Edgar said he had always believed capital punishment appropriate for the worst crimes, and in his five years in office he had never granted clemency to a death-row inmate. Albanese had been on death row at Menard Correctional Center since 1982. Before the execution he was moved to Stateville Correctional Center, where Illinois carried out its executions. Charles Albanese, 58, was executed as scheduled in Illinois on September 20, 1995.
His convictions are final. Albanese maintained his innocence throughout. At trial his defense blamed his brother, and in the years before his execution his lawyers argued that the State's case had never been proved beyond doubt and that perjury had occurred at his trials. In September 1995 Amnesty International pointed out that his trial lawyer had never tried a capital case, and a former appeal lawyer said the trial lawyer had not challenged the State's evidence adequately. Every court that reviewed these claims rejected them, and the federal courts found no constitutional violation.
Some details are given differently. Marion Mueller's age is given as 69 and also as 89. The sum of the inheritances is also given as $67,000 in 1982 and as $72,000 in 1995. The Lake County sentencing took place before December 8, 1982, and a more precise date is not on record.
August 6, 1980: Mary Lambert, his wife's grandmother, dies.
August 18, 1980: Marion Mueller, his mother-in-law, dies.
September 1980: Albanese is made treasurer of Allied Die Casting Corporation; his father becomes president.
May 16, 1981: His father, M.J. Albanese, dies.
November 1981: Albanese is arrested; a McHenry County grand jury returns a four-count indictment.
May 18, 1982: A McLean County jury convicts him of two murders, the attempted murder of his brother and theft.
June 23, 1982: Death sentence, 60 years and two five-year terms imposed at Woodstock.
Late October 1982: A Lake County jury convicts him of the murder of his mother-in-law.
By December 8, 1982: A second death sentence is imposed in Lake County.
February 22, 1984: Illinois Supreme Court affirms the McHenry County case (102 Ill. 2d 54).
October 19, 1984: Illinois Supreme Court affirms the Lake County case (104 Ill. 2d 504).
May 19 to 21, 1986: Post-conviction hearing in McHenry County.
September 29, 1988: Illinois Supreme Court affirms the denial of post-conviction relief.
May 28, 1993: Federal district court denies habeas relief.
1994: Seventh Circuit affirms.
September 12 to 19, 1995: Successive petition filed and rejected at both federal levels; clemency denied.
September 20, 1995: Executed in Illinois.