AFTER TWENTY-SIX YEARS, WHAT'S ANOTHER TEN?
When serial sexual psychopath killer Brian Dugan offered to confess to the Jeannine Nicarico murder back in 1985, in return for a life sentence instead of the hangman's noose, the state was getting far better in the bargain.
Giving up a chance to engage in the barbaric practice of state sponsored homicide on Dugan would most importantly free two innocent men, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, who had been recklessly sentenced to die in one of he worst cases of prosecutorial abuse in Illinois history. By rejecting Dugan's offer, the wheels of injustice would grind along for another ten years before Cruz and Hernandez were freed. Secondly, millions of dollars would have been saved, including the three that DuPage County had to pay the two designated executees for wrongful prosecution. Finally, closure could have been given to the Nicarico family just two years after their tragic loss instead of the current twenty-six, with another ten to go while the Dugan death watch lumbers along during the appeals process.
DuPage County States Attorney Joe Birkett and his staff no doubt engaged in proverbial if not actual "high fives" upon the death sentence verdict. If so they and the dwindling number of DuPage citizens whose bloodlust for death has not yet been tempered by the quality of mercy are the only ones who have something to celebrate in this endless saga of murder and its twisted aftermath.
Giving up a chance to engage in the barbaric practice of state sponsored homicide on Dugan would most importantly free two innocent men, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, who had been recklessly sentenced to die in one of he worst cases of prosecutorial abuse in Illinois history. By rejecting Dugan's offer, the wheels of injustice would grind along for another ten years before Cruz and Hernandez were freed. Secondly, millions of dollars would have been saved, including the three that DuPage County had to pay the two designated executees for wrongful prosecution. Finally, closure could have been given to the Nicarico family just two years after their tragic loss instead of the current twenty-six, with another ten to go while the Dugan death watch lumbers along during the appeals process.
DuPage County States Attorney Joe Birkett and his staff no doubt engaged in proverbial if not actual "high fives" upon the death sentence verdict. If so they and the dwindling number of DuPage citizens whose bloodlust for death has not yet been tempered by the quality of mercy are the only ones who have something to celebrate in this endless saga of murder and its twisted aftermath.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 11:33 PM
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