An Illinois Appellate Court panel has upheld the murder conviction of Shariff Banks in a 1994 slaying.
Banks, who was 17, was a passenger in a car on July 20, 1994, when the driver pulled up to a car carrying Mary Davis, 15, and several other youths in the 1600 block of Lyons Court of Waukegan.
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Banks and other reputed gang members had been pursuing the other car because it was allegedly carrying members of a rival gang. A second car had blocked the car Davis was in to prevent its escape. Banks opened fire and shot Davis in the head.
Banks contended that he had been denied a fair trial, that Judge Christopher Starcks had erred and that the Lake County state’s attorney’s office had failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.