WurfWhile

You can read Eric Zorn’s take here.

I’m against the death penalty, so my take on locking Brian Dugan up for the rest of his life for the Jeanine Nicarico murder is easy to understand - and would save money - but I would want to defend my position on its merits, not on its cost. It’s dangerous to use money arguments about things like justice.

It’s kind of like my take on voting State’s Attorney Joe Birkett for Lieutenant Governor. It might be that it will cost DuPage taxpayers more money if Joe’s elected Lieutenant Governor because of the transition in the States Attorney’s office during the trial of Brian Dugan for Jeanine Nicarico’s murder - but saving money is not why I’m not voting for Birkett. In fact, the history of the Nicarico case suggests that Joe Birkett shouldn’t be the prosecutor in the case - even if it ends up costing more money to have another prosecutor take over the case. Which gets back to my point about how it’s dangerous to use money arguments about things like justice - the cost of justice is more than just money.

[Note to readers: None of this should be construed as criticism of Eric Zorn, who of all people, knows quite a bit about how “justice” worked in the Nicarico case. But readers of Eric’s blog piece cited above may not have his appreciation of the case and its “cost.” Too many have already paid too much in this case.]