"Finding mercy where it shouldn’t exist is exactly what mercy is."
- Cook County Assistant Public Defender Mark Levitt

A convicted mass-murderer was spared the death penalty today in Chicago. Two jury members, apparently, decided to offer mercy to one who showed none. Consider the following from the Chicago Tribune:

Cook County jury today spared James Degorski of the death penalty three weeks after he was convicted in the murders of seven workers at the Brown’s Chicken restaurant in Palatine in 1993.

He will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

As the verdict was announced, one juror shook his head as if disappointed by the outcome. But another juror nodded her head in apparent agreement with the verdict.

The original jury vote was 8-4 in favor of death, according to the jury forewoman. The two sides explained their positions, then they took another vote. That time the panel favored death 10-2.

"It did get a little heated and frustrating until we reached the point where we decided we wouldn’t reach a unanimous version," the forewoman said.

Degorski — dressed in a blue Oxford shirt — showed no emotion as the verdict was read. His mother Patricia cried and hugged her son’s attorneys.

She thanked jurors for sparing her son. "I appreciate the jury’s decision. My heart goes out to what the families of the victims have been through with this whole trial. I appreciate just how kind and caring they have been."

Degorski’s sister, Kathy, nodded and offered a small smile when asked outside the courthouse if she was relieved by the verdict.

"Yes," she said softly.

Diane Clayton — mother of one of the victims, Marcus Nellsen — sobbed, looked up at the ceiling and clutched her arms after hearing the verdict.

She later fainted after telling reporters she disagreed with the jury’s decision but would respect it. She gained consciousness moments later, but paramedics were called.

I’m particularly taken with this statement from Mark Levitt, a senior Cook County assistant public defender:

"Finding mercy where it shouldn’t exist is exactly what mercy is," said Levitt, who spoke in a soft tone during closing arguments and referred to Degorski as "Jim."

Levitt recounted Degorski’s abusive childhood and showed school-age photos of Degorski and his four siblings while recalling the sexual and physical abuse they suffered at their father’s hand. Levitt portrayed Degorski as a young child willing to take extra blows in the hopes of protecting his siblings, a role that left him with deep psychological wounds.

At moments, a typically stone-faced Degorski swallowed hard and looked away as Levitt described a tyrannical and sexually perverse father. Levitt said his client suffers from neurological problems, was in special-education classes from an early age and wet his bed until the age of 14.

Returning to the theme of a child who never had a chance, Levitt recalled the testimony of Degorski’s first-grade teacher, who described him as quiet and "cuddly" but also easily startled.

Levitt asked jurors to consider life in prison, explaining that such a sentence was far from lenient. "It is not a good thing, being caged like an animal," he said. "He will spend the rest of his days rotting."

I know as a conservative I’m supposed to reject this finding by the jury, but I don’t. I accept it.

According to local news reports in Chicago, the first vote was 8-4 in favor of the death penalty. In the end, two relented to the majority, and the final vote was 10-2.

It took two Americans to spare a man from the death penalty.

I know I should be crying for blood, and eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I can’t find it in my heart to do so. I have been so angry, so long, taking up every conservative cause that I was told to take up.

Sitting here alone, in the night, I support this decision for mercy. Degorski will spend his remaining days rotting.

And may the victims and their families finally find peace.

President Obama is only the third sitting president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Conservative Americans should be cheering.

Instead, we read only jeering from FOX News:

In a clear dig at former President George W. Bush, a State Department spokesman compared President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize to the flying footwear his predecessor faced in Iraq.

“From our standpoint, you know, we think that this gives us a sense of momentum … when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday.

Crowley was referring to a 2008 incident in which an Iraqi reporter hurled his shoe at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad. The act of protest struck a chord with millions in the Arab and Muslim worlds who had been captivated and angered by daily images of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

This is from the only article on the FOX News home page this evening relating to the honor afforded the president today:
State Department Lauds Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize by Making Jab at Bush.

This is not a dig at former President Bush. This is the truth. It was not a long ago that President Bush stood at a podium and dodged shoes thrown at him. Look:

FOX News should be cheering the fact that the United States of America has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Instead, FOX News is still fixated with former President Bush.

We should all cheer America today. This is our day.

We’re finished with FOX News.

I was surprised to read this in the Huffington Post:

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kans.) told reporters on Wednesday that opposition to the president’s health care package was driven, in part, by knee-jerk partisanship and he urged Congressional Republicans to consider backing a version of reform.

The 1996 Republican presidential candidate also predicted, following a speech at a health care reform summit in Kansas, that “there will be a signing ceremony” for a reform bill sometime this year or early in 2010.

But the comments that seem likely to create the most ripples were those that dealt with Congressional opposition to the White House. Dole, according to reports, framed the pushback to Barack Obama’s reform agenda as almost perfunctory in nature.

“Sometimes people fight you just to fight you,” he said, according to The Kansas City Star. “They don’t want Reagan to get it, they don’t want Obama to get it, so we’ve got to kill it…”

“Health care is one of those things,” he added. “Now we’ve got to do something.”

In a statement to the Huffington Post, an aide to the former majority leader clarified that Dole “believed there is an opportunity to do something on health care” but that he wasn’t urging Republicans to simply get on board a final package.

I have been watching this debate closely, and I’m not pleased with the Republican reaction to the need for reform.  The GOP must realize the need for reform.  I believe Republicans outside of Congress get it.  Those who currently hold seats in Congress have become radicalized.  They are simply incapable of participating in rational debate.

Is there anyone in the GOP who can lead and participate in the crucial discussions we need to have in this country?

Personally, sometimes I can relate more with the Conservative Democrats than with the radical fringe holding power in the GOP.  Is there no one left who can discuss issues?

Bob Dole is right.

Albert

We are tired of billionaire wannabes. If we continue with unregulated capitalism, the vast majority of conservatives will lose all their wealth.

All of it.

We almost cringe to write this, but we must return to the economic philosophy of the New Deal.  Otherwise, America is lost.

And all she holds dear.

The wealth of most conservatives will vanish.  There is a finite amount of money in the world’s economy, and a small percentage of people holding vast amounts of that wealth leads will only result in a few people holding the majority of the wealth.

That is happening now.  And a gilded economy will bring down America.

I must ask, are you married to an ideology, or are you capable of discussing ideas?

Drop your ideology.  Let’s talk IDEAS.

Unbridled capitalism will return us to a gilded age. And, if that happens, most of us will lose our wealth.

The only way conservatism will survive is if enough conservatives have money.  And that means we must be learn to accept and be comfortable with less.

Unbridled capitalism will return us to a gilded age. And, if that happens, most conservatives  will lose their wealth.