In a reversal, prosecutors to seek death penalty in kids' drownings

CLINTON, Ill. (AP) -- Prosecutors reversed course and said they will seek the death penalty in the murder trials of a woman and her former boyfriend accused of drowning her three children in a lake.
Amanda Hamm and Maurice LaGrone Jr. are each charged with three separate counts of murder for each of the three children, who were in the back seat of Hamm's car when it sank into Clinton Lake last September. Both have pleaded innocent.
Special prosecutor Ed Parkinson said the notice to seek the death penalty will be filed before the early May deadline, the (Decatur) Herald & amp; Review reported.
He said prosecutors reversed an earlier decision not to seek the death penalty because of new information.
"We just have re-evaluated the case," Parkinson told the newspaper. "This is the type of case the death penalty was intended for, if we can convict them."
LaGrone's trial has been scheduled Oct. 25. Hamm's trial will likely follow LaGrone's, but no date has been set.
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