The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned the sentence of a man on death row since 1982, ruling his attorney failed to present evidence that may have spared his life. The court-appointed attorney, who’s now a judge, was so deficient that it probably meant the difference between a prison term and a death sentence for Willie Thompkins, this according to the Illinois Supreme Court. Thompkins was sentenced in 1982 for the deaths of two men two years earlier in suburban Chicago. His attorney, Patrick McGann, failed to call as witnesses people who could have described Thompkins as a good son, husband, father and worker. He delivered food to poor families and repaired toys for needy children during the holidays, and doctors said he was a conscientious paramedic. The court heard none of this.