[Ppnews] Chicago - 4 Decades After Shooting, Effort to Make Punishment Fit the Crime

[Political Prisoner News]

February 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23panther.html?_r=4&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


4 Decades After Shooting, Effort to Make Punishment Fit the Crime

By CATRIN EINHORN

CHICAGO ­ What punishment should be imposed on a 
man who shot a police officer almost 40 years ago 
and fled to Canada, but went on to live an 
upstanding life as a husband and father who worked in a library?

There was a rare answer here on Friday: Require 
him to give $250,000 to a foundation that helps 
the families of injured Chicago police officers.

Joseph Pannell, 58, who admits that he shot a 
police officer here in 1969, will serve just 30 
days in jail and two years’ probation as part of 
a plea bargain that legal experts called extremely unusual.

The driving force behind the arrangement, both 
sides said, was the former Chicago police officer 
himself, Terrence Knox, whose right arm was 
permanently damaged by the shooting.

“Something good had to come out of this,” Mr. 
Knox said Friday, after watching Mr. Pannell 
accept the deal during a hearing in a Cook County courthouse.

“The easy way out would have been to have a 
trial, and cost this county hundreds of thousands 
of dollars, have him go to jail, and cost the 
prison system hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Mr. Knox said.

Mr. Pannell, who was charged with aggravated 
battery, attempted murder and bail-jumping, could 
have faced up to 23 years in prison. All but an 
aggravated battery charge were dropped.

The $250,000 came from Mr. Pannell and his 
family, and friends and lawyers in the Chicago 
area, said Neil H. Cohen, Mr. Pannell’s lawyer.

The case began on March 7, 1969, when Mr. Knox, 
then 21, was patrolling near a Chicago high 
school in a squad car. Prosecutors said that when 
he pulled over and asked Mr. Pannell, then 19, 
why he was not in school, Mr. Pannell fired 
several shots at him. While on bail, Mr. Pannell 
fled to Canada. He married a Canadian and worked 
as a library research assistant.

In 2004, he was arrested, but fought extradition. 
Last month he gave up that fight, saying he was 
inspired by the new political climate he saw in 
Chicago, symbolized, he said, by the support of 
Mayor 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/richard_m_daley/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Richard 
M. Daley and other political leaders for the 
presidential candidacy of Senator 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Barack 
Obama.

Mr. Pannell, who has long gone by the name Gary 
Freeman, called the incident “an American 
tragedy” and said he took responsibility for his actions.

“We must seek to move away from adversarial 
confrontation and towards peaceful reconciliation 
and conflict resolution,” Mr. Pannell went on. 
“Today is about acceptance of responsibility, atonement and redemption.”

Mr. Pannell’s lawyer declined to answer specific 
questions about the shooting. But previously, 
John Norris, a lawyer for Mr. Pannell in Canada, 
said he had acted in self-defense during a time 
of intense distrust between the Chicago police and African-Americans.

The Chicago police have said Mr. Pannell was a 
member of the Black Panther Party, though Mr. Pannell denies that.

Mr. Knox, who went on to become a businessman, 
said he had not spoken to Mr. Pannell and did not wish to.

Defendants in violent cases are rarely offered 
plea bargains that include large donations to 
charity instead of lengthy prison time, legal experts said.

“It almost looks like a bribe,” said Ronald 
Allen, a professor of law at 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/northwestern_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Northwestern 
University, who added that since the arrangement 
had the victim’s blessing, it might not be unreasonable.

“In a way, it’s recompense for exactly the kind of harm that he caused.”




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