Friday, February 06, 2004
A Good Prosecutor
It's nice to see a prosecutor using his statutory digression for good:
The burglar got what he deserved; crime is a risky business, and defending oneself against it add an additional burden by the state.
It's also nice to see the prosecutor's office not wasting it's resources prosecuting this minor crime; certainly the gun owner will re-register his firearm. However, one shouldn't have to worry about such matters when one is faced with a home invasion.
Chicago Tribune | Charges dropped in Wilmette gun case: "In a slap at Wilmette village officials, Cook County prosecutors today announced they would not pursue charges against a homeowner, who shot and wounded an alleged home intruder, for letting his state firearms registration lapse.
'We choose to prosecute the real criminal here, the person who broke into this house not once, but twice,' said Assistant State's Atty. Steve Goebel, supervising prosecutor in the Skokie courthouse.
Wilmette resident Hale DeMar had been charged with failing to renew his state Firearms Owner's Identification Card when it expired in 1988. Had DeMar been found guilty of the misdemeanor, he could have been fined up to $2,500 or sentenced to a year in jail.
'He purchased a gun legally. It was registered. What he failed to do was keep current (his FOI card), and we chose not to prosecute this memory lapse,' Goebel said.
Prosecution, Goebel said, 'would violate the spirit of the law and be a narrow-minded approach.' He said his office decided not to pursue the case after conferring with Wilmette police, who brought the charge."
The burglar got what he deserved; crime is a risky business, and defending oneself against it add an additional burden by the state.
It's also nice to see the prosecutor's office not wasting it's resources prosecuting this minor crime; certainly the gun owner will re-register his firearm. However, one shouldn't have to worry about such matters when one is faced with a home invasion.
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