On Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, The Dispatch-Argus, in what can only be fairly described as an act of gross journalistic malpractice, irresponsibly turned the front and second pages of its paper over to a group of activists, labeling themselves "Injustice Watch."
In that article, deceptively titled, "Felony murder called flawed," the Dispatch-Argus allowed "Injustice Watch" to portray as a victim a convicted murderer named Gerald Berry, who when he was 20 years old knowingly and intentionally allowed himself to be persuaded by his friends to join them in perpetrating a residential burglary and armed robbery to obtain some "quick money." That armed robbery resulted in the deaths of one of the homeowners and one of Berry's armed robber friends.
According to the Injustice Watch article, Berry said, "It was just shocking … It was unbelievable because that’s not what we thought was going to happen."
Berry's complaint is that he was unjustly found guilty of not just the death of the homeowner, but also the death of one of his armed robber buddies. Berry, who remained in the get-away car and knowingly and intentionally acted as the lookout, is portrayed in the article as a victim of a bad law.
Really?
Today, it seems clear that if you are an activist group, claiming to be against "injustice," you can write up an absurd and dangerous "bill" and easily persuade the Democrats in the Illinois Legislature to pass it, and Illinois' Democratic governor to sign it into law. It's simple. Give it a cutesy name, such as "SAFE-T Act," and the Democrats will trip over themselves to vote for it. I blame the Democrats in the Illinois Legislature because they have absolute control of both the House and Senate.
The "SAFE-T Act," however, is aptly named. The act makes crime a whole lot safer for armed robbers and other felons using guns to escape prosecution for, and the conviction of, murder for at least some of the homicides occasioned by their armed robberies.
To see why, compare the words of the old first-degree murder statute with those of the new "SAFE-T Act."
The prior Illinois first-degree murder statute read:
"A person who kills an individual without lawful justification, commits first-degree murder if, in performing the acts which cause the death, he is attempting or committing a forcible felony ..."
Under that statute, if anyone was killed during the course of the armed robbery, all of the armed robbers were liable to be prosecuted under the felony murder rule for every death that rose out of the armed robbery.
A felony murder was a homicide that occurred during the perpetration of a "forcible felony." The legislature had defined the term "forcible felony" to include the crimes of armed robbery and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.
The new "SAFE-T Act" reads:
"A person who kills an individual without lawful justification, commits first-degree murder if, in performing the acts which cause the death, he, acting alone, with one or more other participants, commits or attempts to commit a forcible felony ... and in the course of which or in furtherance of such crime or flight therefrom, he or another participant causes the death of another person."
Previously an armed robber was indictable for every death that occurred during his armed robbery. Now he is liable only if he, or one of his accomplices, does the killing.
It shouldn't be too difficult to see how this change makes it harder to prosecute criminals in the deaths of people, deaths that wouldn’t have happened if people like Gerald Berry hadn’t taken part in forcible felonies.
When this column continues tomorrow, I’ll present a situation that will make it clear why the new "SAFE-T-Act" is a bad law, and why the changes it made to the murder statute makes prosecuting crimes harder; why it makes sense to be able to prosecute people for murder even if they didn’t pull the trigger.
Copyright 2022, John Donald O'Shea
First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on February 18, 2022
First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on February 18, 2022
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