You'd think that after a parolee just shot and almost killed two Chicago cops, the governor would just maybe delay making this sort of announcement. It's obvious that his part of the criminal justice system needs a second look - parole hearings, clemency boards, pardons for violent offenders:
- Rosa Young-Bey Williams said she had been praying for what happened Friday, the day Gov. Pat Quinn made her one of 50 people getting pardons for past crimes.
The 64-year-old Williams now lives in Vista, Calif., but she said her teaching career was cut short when she was convicted for the Glendale Heights shooting of her ex-husband in the arm and shoulder during a 1988 domestic dispute.
“One day I just told myself I wasn’t going to take any more beatings,” she recalled Friday. “I didn’t kill him. I just shot him.”
Because that's what people do. If you want to get technical about it, her break came when she beat the "attempted first degree murder" charge. To only have been convicted of aggravated battery and armed violence was a gift. Everything afterwards is on her. But not anymore thanks to Pat Quinn.
And if this is the case the media highlights, we can only imagine what the other 49 cases look like.
And if this is the case the media highlights, we can only imagine what the other 49 cases look like.