Daily Mail

January 31, 2017

Defense attorneys for the four suspects accused of tying up and torturing a mentally disabled man while they live streamed it on Facebook are complaining that the foursome have received death threats.

‘It is sad and unfortunate that many have commented on these young men and women without knowing all the facts,’ said Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli after a hearing on Friday. ‘They have been denounced in the media before anything has been proven.’

She said that ‘sensationalized, pervasive media coverage’ threatens to poison the jury pool. Neil Toppel, a public defender for one of the defendants, cited an online post calling for the ‘public execution’ of the defendants and their supporters.

‘There was a posting that invited a Good Samaritan to publicly execute these defendants by law or if not by mob,’ Toppel told reporters. ‘And said anybody that supports them should be executed as well.’

Public defenders are representing all of the suspects.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 8:40 am