Andrew Suh was only 19 when he executed his sister’s boyfriend nearly 30 years ago in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood, a sensational crime that launched an international search, sparked a media frenzy and brought lifelong grief to the victim’s family.

Suh admits he pulled the trigger in the premeditated, ambush-style killing of a man who had helped raise him. But after about three decades in prison, the now-49-year-old Suh hopes his remorse and efforts to better himself have earned him a measure of mercy.

Suh has said he killed the victim at the insistence of his sister, Catherine. She was convicted and is serving a life sentence.

Andrew Suh’s latest petition for executive clemency has been pending for months before Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Cook County prosecutors are not objecting to his request to have his remaining prison term commuted to time served, an office spokesperson confirmed.

It’s unclear when the governor will decide whether to grant Suh’s request. But Suh’s supporters are buoyed by his transfer earlier this year to a less restrictive state facility that accepts certain inmates with clean disciplinary records who have only a few years of incarceration left.

He arrived at the Kewanee Life-Skills Re-Entry Center in western Illinois in March. The facility, which offers various programs to help inmates succeed upon their release, has double the budget and a fraction of the population of the medium-security prison where Suh had been housed, according to state correctional records.

Even if the governor rejects his petition, Suh is expected to be freed in about six years despite his 80-year prison sentence. Laws in place at the time of the 1993 murder have allowed him to reduce his term significantly by earning a day of credit for each day served, records show. He also shaved off time through work assignments and rehabilitative programs he successfully completed.

In a recent email to the Tribune, Suh said his transfer to Kewanee is a “game changer,” allowing him to prepare for his future as a free man instead of merely trying to survive behind bars. His longtime supporters, many of whom are members of Korean American religious communities, have offered him a place to live, employment and transportation.

“I am truly ready to begin the next stage of my life,” he wrote in the email, provided through his attorney in response to a request for comment. In a letter to Pritzker, Suh said his remorse is genuine and that he accepts full responsibility for the murder of 31-year-old Robert O’Dubaine.

The slain man’s parents and a sister are now deceased. Other relatives have written to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board urging Andrew Suh’s continued incarceration. One brother and the retired judge who convicted and sentenced Suh told the Tribune in the past that they don’t oppose his early release. They said the murder wouldn’t have occurred if not for Suh’s sister, who they said should never be set free.

At the time of the murder, Andrew Suh had a bright future despite a difficult upbringing. His parents, Ronald and Elizabeth, moved from South Korea to Chicago’s Northwest Side in 1976 when Andrew was 2. He was 11 when his father died of cancer. Two years later, his mother was fatally stabbed in the family’s dry cleaning business in Evanston.

O’Dubaine had begun dating Catherine Suh a couple of months earlier. Nearly seven years her senior, he moved into her family’s home immediately after the death of her mother, and 18-year-old Catherine took on the role of guardian to her 13-year-old brother.

Andrew Suh went on to graduate from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, where he excelled academically, played football and was elected class and student body president, school records show. In fall 1993 he was a sophomore at Providence College in Rhode Island, having received a full academic scholarship.

Then he threw it all away.

That Sept. 25, he flew home from college and his sister dropped him off at the posh two-flat she shared with O’Dubaine on North Hermitage Avenue in Chicago. Catherine Suh had hidden a paper bag containing a gun and a plane ticket in the garage.

Andrew Suh waited there for hours until O’Dubaine, responding to a call from Catherine Suh asking for a ride, walked into the garage to get his car. Andrew Suh shot O’Dubaine twice in the neck and head.

The Suhs were arrested separately about six weeks later following an intense police investigation. Authorities said the sister and brother plotted to kill O’Dubaine for his $250,000 life insurance policy.

Suh’s clemency petition states that he killed O’Dubaine to protect his sister and out of a misguided sense of family honor. His sister, he said, claimed O’Dubaine had been abusing her and squandering their family inheritance on gambling debts. Suh also said his sister told him O’Dubaine was behind their mother’s 1987 slaying.

Suh told the Tribune in a 2017 interview he became convinced his sister lied and that she killed their mother to inherit an $800,000 estate, though nobody has been charged in that crime.

The siblings are estranged, he said, and haven’t spoken in decades.

Catherine Suh was portrayed in media coverage as a femme fatale who manipulated her younger brother into committing murder. Dubbed “the black widow,” she abandoned him days before their Cook County trials by going on the run while free on bond. Her disappearance created a media frenzy, and the case was featured in January 1996 on a segment of “America’s Most Wanted.”

Suh, who was convicted of murder in absentia, turned herself in to the FBI in Honolulu that March. Now 54, she is not eligible for parole.

Andrew Suh’s 100-year sentence was reduced to an 80-year term on appeal. His prior appeals, post-conviction petitions and earlier clemency requests to three Illinois governors — George Ryan, Bruce Rauner and Pritzker — in 2002, 2017 and 2020 were unsuccessful.

Members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board held a hearing in April on Suh’s latest request. The board’s recommendation to the governor is confidential.

Suh’s attorney, Candace Chambliss, legal director of the Illinois Prison Project, noted he would have been eligible for parole in 2015 if Illinois’ Youthful Parole law had been in place. The 2019 law acknowledges that young people’s brains are not fully developed and that they lack the decision-making abilities of more mature adults.

“(He) will always carry the guilt and shame associated with taking another human being’s life,” Chambliss said in the petition. “But he is no longer a frightened and hurting 19-year-old boy. Today, (he) is a shining example of resilience and redemption. He has utilized every moment of his incarceration to better himself and improve the lives of those around him.”

Prison records show Andrew Suh’s disciplinary record is nearly perfect. Besides completing several rehabilitative and educational programs, including becoming a certified optician, he has assisted disabled inmates and volunteered in his former prison’s hospice unit. At Kewanee, Suh co-authors a prisoner newsletter and is involved in a mentoring program for at-risk youths involved in the juvenile justice system.

His attorney submitted about 50 letters of support with his petition, including from state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago. Several staff members from the Illinois Department of Corrections also offered their support, including acting Assistant Director Alyssa Williams.

Many of his other supporters are members of Grace Presbyterian Church in Wheeling and have long kept in touch with Suh through visits, phone calls and letters.

“I am willing to have him stay at my house as long as he needs after his release,” said Sungmin Kim, an attorney and church member, who said he has known Suh since 2006.

When he is released, Suh said, he wants to continue his college education and work with troubled youths in his community. “Besides the obvious of sharing quality time with my loved ones, I have the goal of making a difference,” he wrote to the Tribune.

As for the 1987 death of the Suhs’ mother, Evanston police said Catherine Suh and O’Dubaine provided alibis for each other on the morning Elizabeth Suh’s body was found under a pile of clothing in her business. She had been stabbed more than 35 times.

In recent years, police have tested old crime-scene evidence with the hope that more advanced forensic testing might reveal the killer’s identity. Authorities recently told the Tribune the testing failed to yield any “actionable leads.”

The case remains unsolved.

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Originally Published: Sep 05, 2023 at 6:43 am