"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.
