Category: Evil

Groundhog Day

On By scottpetersenIn Evil, ParoleLeave a comment

In my post of March 20, 2014, I discussed testifying in parole hearings on murder cases that I tried when I was a States Attorney (prosecutor) at 26th & California.  Last Wednesday was “Groundhog Day.”   I was asked to testify – again – in the 1976 case referenced in that post.  What’s left of the family was there.  Very emotional. 

Ernie S. stabbed Susan H. to death in the fifty hundred block of South Ellis.  She was stabbed in a kitchen.  Ernie S. ran out.  Susan sat down at the kitchen table.  Bleeding out.  Her screams brought two friends who were upstairs.  Beat cops arrived and scooped her up and raced her in the squadrol to the hospital.   No time for an ambulance.  But Susan was DOA.   Ernie S. got 100 to 300 years after a 2-1/2 week jury trial.  The  U.S. moratorium on the death penalty (for which he would have been eligible) did not end until June 1977.  Interestingly, Ernie had done the same thing the week before to Jasmin G – a nursing student (Jasmin lived).  Some years later, he escaped from a prison van and ran into Joliet West High School and yanked a 14 year girl – Kristine D. – out of a classroom.  He did stuff to her in a stairwell.  He was recaptured.  But now Ernie wants out.  

Because the sentence was “indeterminate,” every two or three years we go back and testify that Ernie S. should never see the light of day again.  Some folks will say “ohhh – just let him go.  He’s a victim.”  Just wait.  Until it’s their child.  Grandchild.

Postscript:  On March 24, 2016, the Parole Board voted 12-0 to deny parole.  They agreed on a 3 year “set.”  Ernie will not be up for parole again until 2019.        

 

Animals

On By scottpetersenIn Evil, TortureLeave a comment

In Pakistan, 145 students (mostly Muslim children) are slaughtered by the Taliban. And the civilized world calls the perpetrators “animals.” In Western Iraq, 322 men, women and children (all Muslim) are massacred by ISIS and dumped into a well.  And we call the perpetrators “animals.” In the Syrian town of Abu Hamam, ISIS assassins murder every male over the age of 15. More than 700 victims. And the media calls the perpetrators “animals.”  In France – Islamic radicals just murdered 17  And the world decries the “animals” who did this.  Thousands killed by Al-Qaeda in Pakistan.  Thousands exterminated by Boko Haram in Nigeria. And let’s no forget 9/11.  Mercy – when will this madness stop? 

When you read and hear – day after painful and sickening day – of massacres and horror beyond belief perpetrated by Muslim extremists (and their insatiable craving for more blood), one comes to the conclusion that some people really are “animals.”   Yet using that term is an insult to a lot of respectable dogs, cats, lions, frogs, turtles, porpoise, jellyfish and pigs.  These “people” are worse than “animals.”  These “animals” are rabid.  And we all know what we do with rabid animals.  They are destroyed.  I don’t think even the ASPCA or PETA would object. . . .   

Evil

On By scottpetersenIn EvilLeave a comment

What is “evil”?  There are dictionary definitions (“morally reprehensible” “a complete absence of – or opposite of – good“).  There seems to be a general consensus on what is “good” and what is “evil.”  And this consensus crosses religious, ethnic, geographic, political and racial boundaries.  And yet there remains evil.  We read about it every day.    

In looking at our world today, most folks would agree that there are all too many organizations which fall under the definition of “evil.”  ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq & Syria); Boko Haram (the radical Muslims – Hausas – in Nigeria); Hamas in Gaza (especially the military wing); Al-Qaeda; Hezbollah; and so many others are veritable killing machines.   They are dedicated to (and often glorify) murder, kidnapping and torture.   They are dedicated to getting their own way.  Anyone who gets in their way is toast.  Interestingly most of the terrorist organizations today are Islamic.   And curiously many of these terror groups are at odds with each other (witness the vicious conflicts between Fatah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the 72 sects of Islam).   We also see the abyss of evil in places like North Korea and in things like crime and exploitation. 

It is instructive to note is that most purveyors of evil and their members avow that their task is holy.  Their goals are honorable.  Their objectives just.  Their enemies are evil.   And that’s the rub.  How does one deal with such logic?  How do you rationalize the recent comments of ISIS killers that they feel “closer to God” by brutally torturing enemies?  You can’t.   We can speak out (I wish moderate voices of Islam would object to the current strife).  We can react.  Respond.  But in the end, I think the answer is that every once in a while, there is a large international commode that is full – and needs flushing.