Guinevere Garcia was born into an unsettled family. Her mother died when she was a baby, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents. She was abused by a relative through much of her childhood. She began to have a problem with alcohol at about the age of 11. At 18 she was placed on probation for a first offence, and at 19 she was convicted of robbery and received three years' probation.
An early first marriage ended in divorce before she went to prison. She had a daughter. The year of the child's birth and of her death is not on record; the death came at a time when Garcia was 18 and on probation.
Her infant daughter died at about 11 months old. Years passed before anyone was charged. In 1981, under questioning by investigators, Garcia confessed to the murder of her daughter and to four aggravated arsons.
She was tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of her daughter, and to 10 years for each of the four counts of aggravated arson, all to run concurrently. The plea to the murder is dated 1983, and the term is also given as 10 years, the time she actually served. The name of the trial court is not on record.
In prison she married George Garcia, a man 26 years older than she was. The marriage ended in divorce while she was still serving her sentence.
Garcia was released from the Illinois Department of Corrections in March 1991 after serving 10 years of her 20-year sentence. Shortly afterward she married George Garcia for the second time. Court records indicated that he had abused her, and the couple separated a few weeks after the second wedding.
In July 1991, about four months after her release, Garcia killed her husband in Bensenville, in DuPage County. He was 60. She confessed to police. On a tape later played for the state Prisoner Review Board she said of the killing: "I killed George Garcia, and only I know why." She also described the crime as hers to answer for: "I committed these crimes. I am responsible for these crimes."
The case was tried in the Circuit Court of DuPage County. On July 27, 1992, a jury convicted Garcia of first degree murder, and the court itself convicted her of an offence under the state's arms law, which applied to her because of her earlier felony convictions. Her motion for a new trial was denied on September 14, 1992.
An eligibility and sentencing hearing was held on October 7, 1992. Garcia waived a jury for sentencing, so the decision went to the judge. The defense put forward evidence that she suffered from depression, alcoholism and a borderline personality disorder, that she had been abused as a child, and that she had behaved well in custody. The court found her eligible for the death penalty and found the mitigating evidence insufficient to prevent it. She was sentenced to death for first degree murder and to 10 years for the arms-law offence. The death sentence was stayed pending her direct appeal. The sentence is also described as imposed by a panel of three judges.
The Supreme Court of Illinois decided the appeal on March 23, 1995. The questions before it included whether her confession was admissible given her claim that she had been too intoxicated to waive her rights, whether statements she made while being processed by police could be used, how many peremptory challenges the trial court had allowed, whether the husband's statements before the killing had been properly excluded, and whether the aggravating and mitigating evidence had been weighed correctly. The court affirmed her convictions and her sentences. Justice Freeman, joined by Justice McMorrow, agreed with the conviction but dissented on the death sentence, arguing that the mitigating evidence was enough to rule it out and that her record in custody and her history of abuse had been undervalued. Rehearing was denied on May 30, 1995, and the court directed that an order be entered setting Wednesday, September 20, 1995, as the date of execution.
In the summer of 1995 Garcia dropped all further appeals. Her lawyer, Manos Kavvidias, had urged her to reconsider; he said the rejection of her automatic appeal "took the wind out of her sails" and that she did not want to wait another five to 13 years. Court hearings found her mentally competent to make the decision and that prosecution experts had testified that she had personality disorders but was not suicidal. She told a judge: "I don't want to die, your honour, but my life is miserable."
Opponents of capital punishment, including a spokeswoman for Amnesty International and the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, tried to stop the execution. Garcia told them to "stay out of my life." In a statement played for the Prisoner Review Board she said: "This is not a suicide. I am not taking my own life." A Cook County Jail chaplain, Sister Miriam Wilson, said that giving up her appeals had brought her more calm than she had known. The DuPage County prosecutor Thomas Epach called her "a walking catalog of crime." The execution was set for Wednesday, January 17, 1996, and she would have been the second woman executed in the United States since the Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.
Governor Jim Edgar, who had never before granted clemency and had allowed five executions in the previous year, commuted her death sentence in 1996. Edgar said he had doubts about the sentence and could find no premeditation. Under Illinois procedure the Prisoner Review Board makes a confidential recommendation to the governor. The sentence that replaced the death sentence is not on record.
The year of the infant daughter's death is not on record. The confession is dated 1981 and the guilty plea 1983; the trial date is not on record. The first sentence is 20 years, also given as 10 years, the time served. Her age when she became a mother is given as 16, and her age at the child's death as 18. No other deaths are charged against or attributed to her.
1981: Garcia confesses to the murder of her infant daughter and to four aggravated arsons.
Early 1980s: tried and sentenced to 20 years for the murder and 10 years for each arson count, concurrent (guilty plea dated 1983).
March 1991: released after serving 10 years of the 20-year sentence; marries George Garcia for the second time.
July 1991: George Garcia, 60, is killed in Bensenville; Garcia confesses to police.
July 27, 1992: a DuPage County jury convicts her of first degree murder; the court convicts her of an offence under the state's arms law.
September 14, 1992: motion for a new trial denied.
October 7, 1992: sentenced to death after waiving a jury for sentencing.
March 23, 1995: Illinois Supreme Court affirms the convictions and sentences; rehearing denied May 30, 1995.
Summer 1995: Garcia drops her remaining appeals.
January 1996: Prisoner Review Board hears her recorded statement; execution set for January 17.
1996: Governor Jim Edgar commutes the death sentence.