A doctor from Illinois who shot and killed a woman to prevent her from testifying against him is among the 37 people whose death sentences were commuted to life in prison by President Joe Biden Monday.

Ronald Mikos, a podiatrist, was convicted in May of 2005 of shooting Joyce Brannon in her church basement apartment to keep her from telling a federal grand jury how he defrauded Medicare. Prosecutors said he shot the nurse and former patient, who was disabled, six times at point-blank range.

Mikos was the last person sentenced to death in Illinois.

Biden said in a statement that he was commuting the death sentences of Mikos and 36 others because it was “consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”

“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” he added, referring to President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment.

Mikos proclaimed he was innocent when he was sentenced in 2006, telling U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman, “Your Honor, I did not kill Joyce Brannon.”

Mikos, 57, became only the second person sentenced to capital punishment in the history of Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

His attorneys had suggested at the trial that drug pushers might have hidden narcotics in Brannon’s apartment in a North Side church basement, returned to get them and murdered her.

But the jury found him guilty of murder as well as defrauding Medicare out of $1.8 million by billing it for thousands of foot operations he had never performed.

The jury recommended the death penalty despite testimony of psychiatrists that Mikos had numerous mental problems, including a schizotypal personality and photos that defense attorneys said showed that he had holes where brain tissue should be.

They said the severe brain degeneration might have been caused by abuse of alcohol and his frequent use of a potent prescription painkiller.

No members of Brannon’s family were present at the sentencing. But prosecutors released a letter in which her sister, Janet Bunch, said Mikos acted “out of greed and obviously low or no morals.”

“When he realized that he was caught and faced serious personal consequences for his greed, he chose to take a human life in a violent and merciless way. … I feel that Ronald Mikos forfeited any right to leniency when he planned and carried out the cold-blood execution of my sister.”

Mikos, meanwhile, continues to fight his conviction. In 2020, he filed a motion contending he was not competent to stand trial and that his lawyers were not effective. He also claimed that his death sentence violated the Eighth Amendment because of his mental illness.

In September of this year, a federal judge said some of Mikos’ contentions merited further review and ordered both sides in the case to meet on the issues he raised.

Associated Press contributed

Today is the 20th anniversary of incapacitating snowstorms in Indiana. What are the chances of a white Christmas in Indianapolis in 2024?

What is a white Christmas?

It need not snow Dec. 25 to fit the weather service’s definition of a white Christmas: There just needs to be at least 1 inch of snow on the ground. A trace amount of snow does not count. On average, about 38% of the contiguous 48 states has an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas Day, according to 21 years of data compiled by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Will it snow in Central Indiana this Christmas?

On Christmas Eve,  there’s a 20% chance of rain after 1 p.m., with patchy fog before noon, according to the National Weather Service. The high is expected to be near 41 degrees. There’s a 50% chance of rain at night, mainly after 1 a.m.

It will be a mild Christmas Day. Expect rain, mainly before 1 p.m. The high will be near 42 degrees. At night there’s a 20% chain of rain before 1 a.m., with the low around 39 degrees.

Indianapolis this year experienced its third warmest fall on record, according to a recent report by NWS. Average temperatures hovered near 60 degrees, roughly four degrees above normal.

Record-breaking pre-Christmas snowstorms’ 20th anniversary

Christmas 2024 will be quite a bit different from Christmas Day twenty years ago when pre-Christmas back-to-back snowstorms dumped a total of more than two feet of snow on central Indiana, shut down highways and resulted in Blackhawk helicopters being resued to find stranded motorists.

According to the National Weather Service, two separate snowstorms started in the Central Plains and eventually hit southern and central Indiana on December 22 and December 23. They brought record or near record snowfall to parts of south central and east central Indiana and significant snowfall to the rest of central Indiana. 

Snowfall totals exceeded 20 inches across most of southeastern Indiana with Seymour reporting a two-day record of 29 inches. The area bounded by Vincennes, Terre Haute, Muncie and Kokomo saw a general eight to 12 inches with snowfall amounts diminishing to just a few inches northwest towards Lafayette. 

The weather closed Interstates 64, 65 and 74 in various locations across the state, crippled Interstate 70, and caused a train derailment and collision in southern Indiana. 

One hundred National Guardsmen were called out in some areas, particularly in those areas where motorists were stranded. Two Blackhawk helicopters and 47 Humvees were used in searching for stranded motorists.

Snowfall: Are we seeing fewer white Christmases due to climate change?

What is the average temperature on Christmas Day in Indianapolis?

Average highs across the Indianapolis area on Christmas Day are in the mid-30s, according to the NWS, with a normal high of 38.

Average low temperatures range from the low-20s with a normal temperature of 22.

IndyStar reporter John Tufts and USA TODAY reporters Doyle Rice and Elizabeth Weise

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com:@cherylvjackson or Bluesky: @cherylvjackson.bsky.social.

On Sunday evening, we learned that Iowa officially missed out on Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula, a big target out of the transfer portal. After visits to Iowa, Missouri, UCF and Ole Miss, the former Nittany Lion elected to take his talents to Mizzou.

So what’s next for the Hawkeyes? What other available targets are worth looking into? Is their best option not in the portal (yet)?

Let’s take a look at what Iowa could do next at the QB position, with its top target off the board.