Illinois Lawmaker Pushes to Restore Death Penalty:  An Illinois lawmaker is planning to introduce a bill in the next  legislative session that would restore capital punishment in certain cases. The death penalty was abolished in the state in 2011.  Evie Allen of WSIL reports that Democratic state Senator Bill Haine, a former state's attorney for Madison County, will propose the bill to allow a death sentence in cases involving serial killings, the murder of a child, seniors, persons with disabilities, murders of witnesses, and murders of correctional and law enforcement officers.  Capital punishment was abolished in the state in 2011 by Gov. Pat Quinn, 12 years after Gov. George Ryan suspended executions and commuted the sentences of 167 death row inmates to life in prison.

Rookie Officer Killed in KY:  A Kentucky State Trooper was shot and killed Sunday evening by a suspect who was later fatally shot when he refused orders to drop his weapon.  Awr Hawkins of Breitbart reports that 31-year-old State Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder was engaged in a high-speed chase when 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks sped off after being pulled over.  During the pursuit, Johnson-Shanks purposely slammed on his brakes, causing Ponder to crash his cruiser into his vehicle, and fired multiple shots at Ponder before taking off on foot, before being shot by another officer.  Ponder, a U.S. Navy veteran, had been a State Trooper only since January 2015.

Professor Fatally Shot on College Campus:  A history professor was fatally shot Monday morning in his office at Delta State University in northwestern Mississippi, and a manhunt for the killer is underway.  Fox News reports that the victim, Prof. Ethan Schmidt, was an assistant professor who had just published his second book and was a member of several organizations at the university.  The Cleveland, MS campus has been on lockdown since word of the incident spread, with students and faculty instructed to remain indoors and away from windows.  New information indicates that the suspect may be a faculty member who is also a person of interest in the killing of another woman, possibly in a love triangle.

Prison Worker Who Aided Escape Blames Depression:  The former New York prison worker who assisted in the elaborate June escape of two convicted murderers from a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border said that she was depressed at the time and her weakness was exploited by the two inmates.  The AP reports that 51-year-old Joyce Mitchell explained that she helped in the escape plan of Richard Matt and David Sweat because Matt had threatened harm to her family.  She claims, "I was going through depression and I guess they saw my weakness and that's how it all started."  Mitchell is accused of smuggling in tools that the two inmates used to break out of the Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6, prompting an intensive manhunt that ended three weeks later when Matt was fatally shot by police and Sweat was apprehended.  Mitchell pleaded guilty to smuggling the tools and faces up to seven years behind bars.