"Justice" is a Joke

We keep hoping that vigilantes will arise to spare the rest of us from this failed system:

• Henry Graham, a 52-year-old man with a lengthy arrest record who killed a man with a single punch on the Magnificent Mile, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, months after a judge found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, saying state law barred him from being convicted of murder.

  The state’s “one punch” legal standard that spared Graham a murder conviction may surprise many, but it is well established in Illinois, where nearly a century of case law holds that a person cannot reasonably expect a single punch to kill someone. Therefore, in almost all cases, a person cannot be convicted of murder when a single punch proves fatal.

That is a ridiculous standard because there are probably dozens of incidents where a single punch resulted in a death. We can name a couple off the tops of our heads. Certianly there are more and certainly a number were "mutual combatants." But there are a couple "ambush" type attacks that should have resulted in murder charges. This is one of them:

• Graham’s victim, Russ Long, was a 49-year-old River North resident and longtime Northern Trust employee. On June 29, 2023, he was carrying a shopping bag past the Cartier store at 630 North Michigan Avenue when Graham quickly approached him from behind without saying a word. Graham twisted his torso backward, then thrust it forward, driving his fist into the back of Long’s head, prosecutors alleged.

  Long fell forward immediately, striking his head on the pavement. As Long lay bleeding on the ground, Graham sat down on a nearby fire hydrant and stared at him for about five minutes, witnesses said. He walked away upon hearing sirens in the distance.

CPD didn't do anyone any favors with the "investigation" either:

• Two witnesses followed him until they crossed paths with a Chicago police unit. The officers detained Graham and, with their body cameras rolling, heard him admit to hitting Long and knocking him unconscious, prosecutors said. The police then let him go.

  For four days, Long’s friends tried in vain to get the Chicago Police Department to file a report about the attack. Finally, on July 2, a friend of Long’s called 911 from his hospital bedside and insisted that an officer be sent to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to document the attack. Once again, the 911 call taker refused to dispatch anyone because Long could not speak, though they eventually relented and sent a car.

  Only then did CPD begin documenting and investigating what had happened to Long, who died of his injuries ten days later. An autopsy showed “severe injuries” to the left side of Long’s head, prosecutors said. His frontal bone and the base of his skull were fractured.

Four days and no one collected any info from an obvious Aggravated Battery. It sounds like the initial Officers didn't even do a Contact Card, but had body cam video with an admission...and he still walked away?

In the intervening three months, the attacker was arrested SIX more times, including four felonies for attacking Evanston Police Officers. Now he gets nine years - and with three years credit, he'll be out in about eighteen months. 

If we're still in town then, maybe we'll start walking the Mag Mile.