However keen the competition, the foremost innocent prisoner sitting on an American death row seems to be Illinois’ own Rolando Cruz. 60 Minutes has done Cruz, ditto Unsolved Mysteries and A Current Affair. The Washington Post, New York Times, and LA Times all examined this travesty of justice. The Reader ran a piece just last week.
At last count Zorn had published 13 Chicagoland columns arguing that prosecutorial zeal, not guilt, is the reason Cruz was sentenced to death in 1985–and again in ’90 after a retrial–for the 1983 rape and murder of ten-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville. Brian Dugan inconveniently confessed to the same crime later in ’85, while admitting to a similar rape-murder about which prosecutors happily took him at his word.
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“This case is not about technicalities; it’s about a massive miscarriage of justice, blatant misrepresentations to the jury,” Zorn told us. “The whole story is so overwhelming. In a column 800 words at a time, I can bite off one thing, make a point with it, and bite off another.”
“Ironically, capital punishment is actually impeding the search for truth in the Cruz case,” he went on. “[Dugan] has confessed to the Nicarico murder but has declined to testify for Cruz unless he is given immunity from the death penalty. Prosecutors have refused, so Cruz’s guilt remains in doubt.”
Even so, the Tribune endorsed Ryan over Republican opponent Jeff Ladd. “He has a commendable record from his decade as the top prosecutor in Du Page,” said the editorial. Our view is that sending an innocent man to his death is enough to spoil a commendable record, but the Tribune sets its own standards.
Did the Sun-Times endorsement give too much weight to this one case? we asked Wycliff. He could have said yes and didn’t. “As I say,” he responded, “I have my own strong opinions.”
Roeser, as we said, read the book and wrote about it in the Sun-Times. Roeser, oft dismissed as an archconservative eccentric because of his own religious preoccupations, reported that the lies were true. Yes, the book did reveal a spiritual life at odds with mindless optimism. “It refers to ideas foreign, frightening and unaesthetic to any average pol.”
