LET THERE BE MORE BLOOD
In the million plus years since the first group of cave men grunted in unison in deciding to club some poor schmo to death for a transgression, real or imagined, against the primitive society they inhabited, the death penalty has been a scourge upon the betterment of man and civilization.
Reading the timeline of the Jeannine Nicarico case congers up an image of that imagined beginning of our obsession with capital punishment, which does nothing but cause endless delay and pain and injustice to everyone connected to these cases.
Add to the frenzy to execute someone, anyone actually; minority status of the imagined perpetrators, prosecutors with suspect morals and limitless political ambition, a gullible and bloodthirsty public, and you have a potent brew for the twenty-six year saga of a horrific crime that could have been solved and justice achieved in a fraction of the time so far spent.
With no leads to the February, 1983 crime, it took DuPage law enforcement and prosecutors thirteen months to concoct a preposterous case against three poor and troubled minorities, and unbelievably garnered death sentence convictions against two of them. It was not for another ten plus years till their convictions and death sentences were mercifully rescinded by a judicial system reluctant to admit the truth and the prosecutorial wrongdoing.
The real perpetrator, Brian Dugan, was initially implicated in the Nacarico killing nearly ten years earlier as the wheels of injustice sought to snuff out the life of two innocent men. Dugan was already implicated in two similar crimes and sought to plead guilty to the Nicarico murder if he would be spared the death sentence.
Although there is much more to this endless saga of monumental judicial wrongdoing, suffice to say that the current county prosecutor is still seeking the death penalty even though justice has been served by Dugan’s guilty plea and his current life sentence for the two similar killings.
Maybe that poor schmo who was death penalty victim No.1 back in the caveman days committed crimes as heinous as DuPage County’s next intended sacrificial lamb to our bloodthirsty public and politically ambitious prosecutors. In the end it doesn’t matter. All we know for sure is that in a million years man hasn’t progressed very far when it comes to dispensing justice.
Also published in Daily Herald, August 6, 2009 and Glen Ellyn Sun, August 7, 2009
Reading the timeline of the Jeannine Nicarico case congers up an image of that imagined beginning of our obsession with capital punishment, which does nothing but cause endless delay and pain and injustice to everyone connected to these cases.
Add to the frenzy to execute someone, anyone actually; minority status of the imagined perpetrators, prosecutors with suspect morals and limitless political ambition, a gullible and bloodthirsty public, and you have a potent brew for the twenty-six year saga of a horrific crime that could have been solved and justice achieved in a fraction of the time so far spent.
With no leads to the February, 1983 crime, it took DuPage law enforcement and prosecutors thirteen months to concoct a preposterous case against three poor and troubled minorities, and unbelievably garnered death sentence convictions against two of them. It was not for another ten plus years till their convictions and death sentences were mercifully rescinded by a judicial system reluctant to admit the truth and the prosecutorial wrongdoing.
The real perpetrator, Brian Dugan, was initially implicated in the Nacarico killing nearly ten years earlier as the wheels of injustice sought to snuff out the life of two innocent men. Dugan was already implicated in two similar crimes and sought to plead guilty to the Nicarico murder if he would be spared the death sentence.
Although there is much more to this endless saga of monumental judicial wrongdoing, suffice to say that the current county prosecutor is still seeking the death penalty even though justice has been served by Dugan’s guilty plea and his current life sentence for the two similar killings.
Maybe that poor schmo who was death penalty victim No.1 back in the caveman days committed crimes as heinous as DuPage County’s next intended sacrificial lamb to our bloodthirsty public and politically ambitious prosecutors. In the end it doesn’t matter. All we know for sure is that in a million years man hasn’t progressed very far when it comes to dispensing justice.
Also published in Daily Herald, August 6, 2009 and Glen Ellyn Sun, August 7, 2009
posted by Walt Zlotow at 12:18 PM
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