Terminally ill former Illinois lawmaker reports to prison

ELGIN, Ill. (AP) – A terminally ill former Illinois lawmaker has reported to prison to begin serving an eight-year sentence for compiling and trading more than 2,700 pornographic images of young children.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman tells the Chicago Sun-Times (http://bit.ly/1edS75o ) that former Democratic state Rep. Keith Farnham of Elgin had arrived at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.

Defense lawyer Terry Ekl said at Farnham’s sentencing in March that the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis would lead to his “painful death” in less than four months.

U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang gave the 67-year-old Farnham permission earlier this month to begin the approximately 830-mile journey to prison on Sunday. Ekl said Farnham must make the trip by car because his use of an oxygen tank ruled out travel by air.

–––

Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 5:50 AM with the headline "Terminally ill former Illinois lawmaker reports to prison."