* The Tribune has run some interesting stories recently on the subject of crime and punishment…
Bill Larson was shocked to learn that his sister’s killer would soon be allowed to walk freely around the grounds of the Elgin Mental Health Center.
Larson has lived uneasily with the knowledge that his family’s home is barely six miles from the facility where his nephew Karl Sneider is receiving treatment after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2003 decapitation slaying of his mother.
A Cook County judge’s decision in December to increase Sneider’s freedom only heightened his alarm, Larson said. Sneider has received permission to take unsupervised walks at the mental health center. He also will be allowed to make supervised trips to the library or go shopping — privileges often granted to patients on the pathway to possible early release.
The judge’s action angered Larson, who said he learned of the relaxed restrictions from a prosecutor. He would have preferred to find out, he said, from the Department of Human Services. As the state agency responsible for treating Sneider, it is only required by law to notify those relatives who request status updates whenever their loved ones’ killers are allowed to temporarily leave state hospitals or are released from custody.
Sneider wants to be notified when the killer’s status changes. It may not seem unreasonable, but it could cause a bureaucratic nightmare.
* The paper also ran an editorial the other day which focused on the heartbreak of families left behind facing murderers’ ludicrous parole hearings…
Every couple of years, we’re forced to revisit the horror of May 4, 1976 — the day Patricia Columbo and her lover murdered her parents and her 13-year-old brother in Elk Grove Village.
Columbo’s father was shot four times and bludgeoned with a lamp. Her mother was shot once between the eyes, and her throat was slit. Her brother was shot once and stabbed repeatedly with scissors. All three were found with what looked like cigarette burns on their bodies.
Columbo and Frank De Luca both got 200 to 300 years in prison. They began their sentences in September 1977. Go ahead, do the math.
Then think about this: Patricia Columbo is preparing to ask the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to let her out. It will be her 17th try
You’d think if somebody got 200 years in prison, they wouldn’t be eligible for parole so soon. You’d be wrong. It’s also something to consider when pondering the elimination of the death penalty. Should survivors be forced to endure this crud year after year?
* This crime doesn’t warrant the death penalty, but I hope they find these morons and lock ‘em up…
Vandals fired yellow paint-balls at a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. located near the Illinois statehouse, Secretary of State Jesse White’s office announced Friday.
The Illinois Secretary of State Police is investigating the vandalism, which was reported around 7 a.m.
According to a statement from White’s office, no other statue or structure in the capitol complex was damaged. The statue has been cleaned and no permanent damage was sustained.
* Meanwhile, the concealed carry issue is really heating up at the Statehouse this year. Subscribers know what’s behind this push, but take it from me it’s quite real…
On Tuesday, a House panel stocked with a number of downstate gun-rights backers is expected to once again approve legislation to make Illinois the 49th state to allow citizens with special training to carry guns in public.
On Thursday, thousands of gun activists are scheduled to descend on the Statehouse for an annual rally organized by the Illinois State Rifle Association.
* Roundup…
* Obama weighs in on death penalty bill
* Drop the act, sign the bill: But the question remains: is it so important to execute Gacy that Illinois runs the risk of executing someone against whom horrific charges are filed but considerably less evidence exists?
* Gun rights groups to test political strength: State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, chief co-sponsor of one of six concealed carry bills introduced in the General Assembly this session, predicts some version of concealed carry will pass in the Senate - if it’s called for a vote.
* Bradley backs gun rights legislation: Called House Bill 3, it would keep cities from adding to existing state laws greater restrictions on acquiring, owning or transfer-ring firearms. Bradley said he’s defending Second Amendment rights by backing the bill. A Bradley news release stated 38 municipalities have firearms laws more restrictive than those of the state. Bradley criticized colleagues who favor tougher firearms laws as “gun-grabbing politicians” trying to erode Second Amendment rights at the state level.
* Beverly lawmaker introduces gun-control bill: State Rep. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) hopes to give school officials the ability to report troubling behavior in students and prevent people they think could be dangerous from buying guns or ammunition.
* Guns and politics: Traver’s sin? In 2007 he worked with the International Association of Police Chiefs and the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation on a report that recommended anti-violence measures, including firearms restrictions. We’re talking such measures as a ban on armor-piercing bullets and military-style assault weapons.
* Guns and privacy: That business about the dangers of releasing public records is a stretch, though. Gun enthusiasts, lobbyists and some lawmakers are waving their arms, warning that if the FOID records are released, bad guys will use them to determine which houses can be safely burglarized because their occupants don’t have guns. Or they’ll use them to determine which houses are occupied by permit holders so they can break in and steal those guns. Those arguments came up in Florida, too, though nobody could name a time when anything like that actually happened. But never mind. Sooner or later someone’s bound to get hurt, the gun crowd says, and when it happens, it will be Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s fault for telling the ISP to hand over the records. What a crock. Their quarrel is with the public records law, not the attorney general.
* Debating guns is never smooth sailing: Guns are not even good on ships likely to meet pirates because guns “invite escalation,” said Yerkes. “In general, if you shoot at someone, they’re going to shoot back. Firing an RPG at an oil tanker is not that great.” To me, if it’s a bad idea to arm a container vessel going through the Gulf of Aden, it’s a worse idea to arm your bungalow on Golf Road. But that’s just me. If having a MAC-10 makes you feel better, by all means and God Bless America. But does it really upset your world if the magazine in that weapon holds 10 bullets instead of 30? Really? That I can’t understand. Maybe if you explain it in an angry tirade, with lots of personal insults and capital letters, it will begin to make sense. Or maybe not.
* New police union head wants more cops
* Hey Rahm: Settlements, reversal in cop abuse cases show challenge of next top cop: First, the city has agreed to pay $3 million for the police shooting of Michael Pleasance in 2003. The 23-year-old unarmed man was gunned down by police officer Alvin Weems, who was trying to break up a fight. Although the officer maintained that Pleasance had struggled for his gun, a video released after his family sued the city showed that Pleasance was a bystander.
* Saturday night’s shooting of four killed Devin Dyer, just a week after his 18th birthday - Shooting in Austin neighborhood leaves 1 dead, 3 injured
* People using bath salts to get high
- additional info - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 8:39 am:
Rich,
Convicted defendants no longer get the multiple parole hearings once Illinois moved to “determinate sentencing” in 1978. Life without parole, means just that and there are no hearings allowed for those cases and others after 1978. The case referred to in the article was a defendant sentenced before 1978, the so-called “C-Class” or “C-number” inmates (inmate’s IDOC number has a C before the number). From the IDOC website:
What are “C-Number” inmates?
“C-Numbers” refers to those inmates who were convicted to indeterminate sentences prior to implementation of determinate sentencing in 1978. C-numbered inmates periodically appear before members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to plead their case for parole. Other inmates serve a specific amount of time and are released after serving a percentage of their sentence.
The elimination of the Death Penalty would NOT make anyone eligible for repeated parole hearings–they are not entitled to any, period.
- amalia - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 8:50 am:
Rich, additional info is mostly correct. every time the criminal justice system changes sentencing systems, there is a difference in status between various inmates. I believe we are on three different levels with living inmates right now, which is why we still have parole hearings. For example, we existed for years under determinate sentencing and still we would have to endure Richard Speck, who was sentenced to death but came up for parole due to the Supreme Court decision on all death sentences.
what is still true is that when a prisoner is alive, even if they are in for life without parole, the loved ones of the deceased victim still hear things about the prisoner. sometimes a prisoner is disciplined, or communicates with someone on the outside, things get in the news, and the family has to endure knowing
that the evil one is still breathing. that in itself would be hard to take. and, unlike hearings that are timed, these things pop up unannounced. I don’t like surprises from breathing evil people.
- additional info - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 9:01 am:
Speck was a c class inmate too. He was re-sentenced prior to 1978 and also had been convicted under the old system.
- Jasper - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 9:36 am:
From the Travers article: “You might as well put an arsonist in charge of the fire department,” said Chris Cox, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
Interesting perspective. I thought BATF regulated firearms. It seems that your typical NRA-type (against any sort of reasonable restriction) would be the “arsonist in charge of the FD” since that person’s views would be contrary to BATF’s mission. Travers seems to be exactly in line with the mission of BATF.
- Remember - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 9:50 am:
Amalia…
Speck was living the good life @ Stateville. Drugs, sex, and celebrity status. The warden gave him the run of the prison. Vandalia Cc had no fences and they had murders and rapist living the good life. People say today that the prisons are very strict. Just wondering if we have a future Guv who is liberal and believes we should have liberal prisons, what will that mean for the Speck and Gacys of the world? And the victim’s families?
- MrJM - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 9:54 am:
Body wash is a gateway drug.
– MrJM
- amalia - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 10:53 am:
@Remember….spot on! it is totally distressing for the victim’s loved ones to hear about the life that some inmates live. they do often get incredible privileges within their restricted space. inmate painting (Gacy) or reportedly working on a sex change (Speck) let alone just breathing, it’s disgusting that they get privileges. difficult for the loved ones, and angers me as a taxpayer. Please, Anita Alvarez connected, get her to call Quinn and ask, once again, that he not take an important tool out of the hands of law enforcement. do not sign the bill outlawing the death penalty.
- Small Town Liberal - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 11:20 am:
- it’s disgusting that they get privileges. -
You know what’s more disgusting? An innocent person spending a decade on death row for a crime they didn’t commit. Try telling one of them it was worth it for people like you to feel better.
- Remember - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 11:25 am:
Small Town Liberal
If they terminate the capitol litigation fund, will it not be more likely that an innocent person could spend life in prison, since there will be no funds for an adequate defense for a poor person?
- Remember - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 11:30 am:
Shouldn’t life in prison… be the new death penalty. keep the CLF and all safeguards in place to ensure adequate defense. Don’t you think it is immoral to not provide an adequate defense?
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 11:50 am:
Illinois can no longer afford the death penalty. It’s just too expensive. Life w/o parole is cheaper.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 12:28 pm:
Definition of PLUTOCRACY
1
: government by the wealthy
2
: a controlling class of the wealthy
— plu·to·crat \ˈplü-tə-ˌkrat\ noun
— plu·to·crat·ic \ˌplü-tə-ˈkra-tik\ adjective
— plu·to·crat·i·cal·ly \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
Plutocrat, forgive my confusion.
The Walker claim was absurd on its face. That it was made by an administration lawyer in a court of law is just another example of that crew’s remarkable habit of dull prevarications in support of its reactionary, narcissistic agenda.
You know, like Walker claiming he campaigned on his proposed budget moves. Not a word of evidence, print of spoken, from his campaign or media coverage, backs it up.
- amalia - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 1:17 pm:
@Small Town Liberal, would you rather the system worked faster? cause that person in your scenario is still alive and in your example, gets out. as in the system worked and did not put the person to death. I’m more disgusted that someone is murdered by a person roaming the roads and streets of Illinois. there are hundreds of people murdered in Illinois each year. get more upset about that.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 2:25 pm:
– People using bath salts to get high
Body wash is a gateway drug.
– MrJM–
When I was a kid, you could buy Mr. Bubble off the shelf without a prescription.
Actually the many ways those so inclined will devise to get high is remarkable in a sad way.
I had a couple of mates in school who spent some time at Charleytown. The place went through scores of ping-pong balls as splitting them at the seam and inhaling the dried glue did the trick in a pinch, apparently.
- Jasper - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 2:49 pm:
Amalia, are you actually claiming that to be anti cap punishment is to not care about people murdered?
- Responsa - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 2:51 pm:
Absolutely no reasonable citizen wants to run the risk that an innocent person is put to death in a case where there is only circumstantial evidence, and when the person claims their innocence. However, some of us believe that there are cases where the death penalty is absolutely appropriate. We who have permanently lost a beloved family member or a friend as victim to heinous violence–and there is no doubt as to whom the perpetrator is –(i.e., there are witnesses, or video or surveillance tape, or a confession in which law enforcement was led to a hidden body) do not understand why a death penalty bill could not have been written to account for these distinctions and circumstances.
- amalia - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 5:07 pm:
@Jasper, no, I am not. but the outcry over the innocent dead never really comes from those who defend those who sit guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. remember, there has been an abundance of work to reform the death penalty by the same people who work to punish those who murder the innocent. How much work on crime fighting/victim assistance/gun regulations/outreach to youth in danger of gang recruitment has been done by the defenders of those accused and found guilty?
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 6:23 pm:
–Apparently this jackass doesn’t understand how modern day pirating works.–
Capt. Jack Sparrow, here.
The point of the article, quoting industry experts, is merchant and cruise ships aren’t armed because they can’t get insurance and they won’t be allowed into ports. Major, non-namby-pamby-drawbacks in the shipping business.
Savvy? Say I?
The United States does have the most powerful navy that ever sailed, so they should be able to blow out any Somalis in bassboats if that’s considered a priority.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 6:38 pm:
–Yeah, the US Navy is pretty much like all the cops, right? They cn protect all the ships out there can they?–
I believe the U.S. Navy and the police, with few exceptions, do an amazing job.
Ships aren’t armed because they can’t get insurance and won’t be allowed in ports. Not even in Tinley Park.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 7, 11 @ 6:50 pm:
Bud, I’ve made it pretty far in good shape so far. But I’m sure you’re armed and ready to go out all times, land, sea or air.
Thanks for the insight on “modern day pirating.”