Two Cop Killers Are Paroled in Chicago

 

Convicted cop killers Joseph Hurst and Johnny Veal have been paroled in Chicago.

On Thursday, 68-year-old Veal and 77-year-old Hurst were both granted parole by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board after killing police officers in two separate incidents.

Law Enforcement Today reports that “in Hurst’s case, he was convicted for the 1967 killing Officer Herman Stallworth – as well as wounding the deceased officer’s partner during the incident. Hurst was said to have been pulled over for speeding back in ’67, which is when he killed he killed Officer Stallworth and wounded his partner. Hurst was originally sentenced to the death penalty, but was then re-sentenced to 100-300 years in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court placed a moratorium on capital punishment in 1972.”

Veal murdered Sergeant James Severin and Officer Anthony Rizzato in 1970 in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing complex.

“Clearly, the intent of the court was for these murderers to pay for the lives they stole with life in prison,” former police Superintendent Phil Cline of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation said of the parole board decision. “More importantly, allowing these men to be free sends a troubling message to the families of these officers that their sacrifice and the lives of their loved ones are somehow insignificant.”

The Law Enforcement Today report adds that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx also voiced opposition to seeing Veal paroled, saying that the killings of the two officers were “cold-blooded execution,” and pointed out that he bragged about the slayings.

Foxx did not oppose Hurst’s parole, and sent a letter to the board in 2020 saying so.