EXECUTION DUE PRISON AT TAMMS

TAMMS, Ill. -- The first execution at the Tamms Correctional Center has been set Sept. 23.

The Illinois Supreme Court set the execution date for Anthony Porter, who was convicted of a murder in Cook County more than 15 years ago.

The Tamms supermax prison is the new site for executions in Illinois.

The facility has a specially designed death chamber but not a death row. Inmates awaiting death will be housed at prisons at Chester and Pontiac until a couple of days before the execution when they will be moved to Tamms.,

The Tamms facility includes special rooms for family, friends and attorneys.

The executions will be by lethal injection.

Illinois prisoners had been executed at Stateville Corrections Center near Joliet since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Only 11 inmates have been executed since then.

The first was Charlie Walker, in 1990; the latest Lloyd Wayne Hampton on Jan. 21.

In between, the state executed John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of brutally torturing and killing 33 men and boys between 1972 and 1978. Gacy was convicted in 1980 and put to death 14 years later.

The new Tamms prison opened earlier this year, and Gov. Jim Edgar dedicated the $73 million prison on Feb. 4. The prison holds 500 prisoners.

The first inmate entered the prison March 10 when Warden George Welborn, who has been with the Illinois Department of Corrections for more than 20 years, opened the Tamms Correctional Center. Welborn served as warden in other prisons before arriving at Tamms in January 1994 to prepare for the state's first super maximum prison and newest execution center.

The facility also included an adjacent 200-bed minimum-security work camp that opened in 1995.