Illinois Great Rivers Conference 2025 Journal-Yearbook
65 murder trials, a mafia hitman, drug dealers, drug leaders and gang leaders. Of all those cases, the one murder case that stood out to me was because of its sen- tencing hearing. It was a case where some drug dealers were operating out of a hous- ing complex and the residents of the complex hired some security guards who were unarmed to come in and protect them, and it ended up driving out the drug dealers. The dealers were not too happy at the loss of their place to sell drugs so one morning at 7:30, seven of them came into the housing complex through the back entrance and approached the front security gate where an 18-year-old unarmed security officer was standing. The seven drug dealers raised their AK-47’s and they fired 57 shots in his direction. He was struck 17 times from the back of the head to the back of his feet. He died before he even hit the ground, according to the Medical Examiner. I prosecuted them for murder and after the conviction, we got to the sentencing hearing. The mother of the victim, who was only 18 years of age, came forward and put her hands on the railing and she looked straight at the 16-year-old defendant just a few feet away. She said to that young man, “For what you did to me, taking my only child, I should hate you.” Then she stopped and her voice broke and the tears came. And she said, “But I want you to know this morning that my Heavenly Father only had one child also and his child was murdered also. “My heavenly father forgave those that murdered his child. I try to follow my father. So today I want you to know that, for what you did, even though I should hate you, I want you to know that I love you and I forgive you. And I hope that while you are in prison, you turn your life over to Jesus Christ. And your son, you’ve got a son, I hope that when he comes to visit you. My grandson can only go to a cold grave and put his hand on a stone. Your son’s going to be able to come and visit you. When he comes, I hope and pray that you teach him about this Jesus, that you give him Jesus.” And then her husband stood up and the two of them went to the railing and they did what you’re never supposed to do in a Brooklyn courtroom. They reached across the railing and grabbed the young man -- the defendant who had killed their son -- and pulled him to them and they just hugged him and cried. Then they went to the back of the courtroom. The mother of the defendant was sitting back there by herself, and the mother and father of the victim went up to the mother of the defendant and hugged her. And the three of them in the back of the courtroom just cried. I sat there at the prosecutor’s table wondering if what had happened to their son had happened to my Hannah and my Eli, my parents, if I could have ever forgiven them. For years, I thought about the act of forgiveness in that moment, in that courtroom, but eventually I began to realize even though there was that great act of forgiveness, there were two other things present. One, they actually followed Jesus Christ. When he said to love your enemies, to love those that hurt you, they did it. And they did perhaps the most amazing thing. In perhaps the darkest hour of their life, they gave that young man Jesus, in the darkest hour. We think of the darkest hours that we’re in. We think of a world in which so often
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