It occurred to me that this was probably the most time-sensitive Final Appeal segment UM ever aired. Stack said that Cruz was scheduled to be executed 5 weeks from the broadcast date. Obviously, it didn't happen.

Does anyone know what happened at that late stage that got him off the hook? Surely it didn't have anything to do with the UM program. I would imagine his lawyers did something, but does anyone know what exactly they did?

Well, it was true that Cruz was scheduled to be executed but it would not have happened. Cruz was still on his initial appeal so it is just for the sake of procedure that an execution date was issued. The Illinois Supreme Court would have issued a stay so that Cruz could pursue other appeals. Again it was something that the producers either did not do their research or they knew that the execution date was just a technicality and was not going to happen but they said it anyway to make things seem more dramatic than they really were.

Cruz was originally convicted of first degree murder in 1985 I believe and he and his co defendant Alex Hernandez were both sentenced to death. In 1988 I believe it was, 88 or 89, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the verdicts ruling that Cruz and Hernandez should have been tried separately not together. So the case was returned to DuPage County, Cruz I believe in 1990 or 1991 was re-tried and was once again convicted and sentenced to death. Hernandez was also convicted again in his re-trial but the jury could not agree on the death penalty so that was off the table and Hernandez was later sentenced to 80 years in prison.

It is interesting to note there was also a 3rd co-defendant originally with Cruz and Hernandez. A white man named Steven Buckley. Buckley also went to trial in 1986 I believe it was, 1986 or 1987 and his trial ended in a hung jury. DuPage County prosecutors decided not to re-try the case and Buckley was released as Cruz and Hernandez were already on death row.

In 1995, Cruz and Hernandez's convictions were overturned again. Cruz elected for a bench trial and he was acquitted by the judge. Hernandez's charges were dropped after Cruz's acquittal. The prosecutors and cops were later tried for perjury and obstructing justice and other charges and all (including the cop that admitted perjuring himself) were acquitted of all charges by jurors from the same county, DuPage County that were so quick to throw the book at Cruz and Hernandez not once but twice. The jurors rewarded these punks that called themselves cops and prosecutors by giving back slaps and high fives. Pathetic! All of those cops and prosecutors are now retired from public service except one who is actually a judge on the Illinois Court of Appeals.