Commentary

Rob Warden asks: Should a gang-related murder conviction stand solely on recanted identification testimony of a single gang member?

Federal officials tried to big foot Illinois prosecutors, and try Brendt Christiansen in federal court so that he might face the death penalty. A jury in Peoria rejected that effort, as Injustice Watch co-founder Rob Warden writes.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who died at 99, believed that government should be neutral. In 2019, the question is whether that model can still survive.

Rob Warden writes that seeking the death penalty against Brendt Christensen is likely only to bring anguish to the families of both the victim and the killer, and to cost taxpayers considerable money. And in addition, writes Warden, the odds are against Christensen actually being executed.

If jurors in staged performances can’t consistently come to the same result — what does that say about real life?

The corrections department offers no answer on whether any inmates have benefited from the new state law that encourages early release for prisoners who qualify. Politics appears to be blocking an answer.