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Posts: 1769
Location: Algonquin, ILL | Hi Guy's/ Gals: It has been a long time since I mentioned anything about my neice's murder but here is the latest update
SPRINGFIELD — Cindy McNamara sat in the courtroom’s second row Tuesday, her eyes fixed straight ahead and her mouth set firm as the tears welled up at the corners of her eyes and trickled slowly, silently down her cheeks.
The paths they traced were solemn reminders: There are some wounds time can’t heal.
“Down here has lost all appeal. It’s lost all appeal for me,” she said of her life, comparing it to the heaven she believes is now home to her only daughter, Shannon. “There will always be something missing.”
It’s been nearly four years since Shannon McNamara, a 21-year-old Rolling Meadows High School graduate, was murdered in her apartment near Eastern Illinois University. It’s been more than two years since a Coles County jury convicted fellow Eastern student Anthony B. Mertz of the crime — deliberating less than three hours before making him the first inmate back on Illinois’ recently cleared death row.
On Tuesday, a state appellate defender, calling that death sentence “excessive,” urged the Illinois Supreme Court to grant a new sentencing hearing for the now-29-year-old Mertz.
Anthony B. Mertz
That appeal was automatic under state law, but the second chance it could offer Mertz is one Bob and Cindy McNamara, who say they’ve supported the death penalty for years, don’t believe Mertz ever will deserve.
“I want to take away everything he took away from Shannon,” Cindy McNamara said. “The sooner he is put to death, the easier we can sleep.”
Mertz was arrested two days after the June 2001 murder, after a credit card bearing his name was found on Shannon’s apartment floor. His conviction rested in large part on DNA found in scrapings of Shannon McNamara’s fingernails. He is not appealing his conviction, only the death sentence.
State Appellate Defender Steven Clark’s arguments Tuesday focused on two things he said should not have been permitted in the sentencing: evidence implicating Mertz in two unsolved crimes — the 1999 killing of Charleston’s Amy Warner and a 2000 arson; and some of Mertz’s personal interests, including Nazism, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and pornography.
Clark said the “criminal profiler” who testified for the prosecution made an unreliable link between McNamara’s murder and the two other crimes, leading the jury to believe Mertz was guilty of them.
He also told the Supreme Court the other “irrelevant” details of Mertz’s character created a prejudice that “very likely, in the minds of one or more jurors, made the difference between life and death.”
But Assistant Attorney General Jay Hoffman argued the “criminal profiler” Clark referenced never said Mertz committed the other crimes, adding there were other witnesses who said Mertz actually had confessed to the arson and the Warner murder. Hoffman also said the information providing insight into Mertz’s character, particularly his sympathy toward McVeigh, “indicates his willingness to do violence.”
“He was a selfish, egotistical bigot,” Hoffman said, “who feels he has the right to use violence to get what he wants.”
Hoffman’s comments included a verbal re-creation of Shannon McNamara’s murder. In five minutes, he summarized days of testimony from the 2003 trial: how Mertz, who lived across the street from Shannon, tried getting into her apartment with a credit card, was stymied by a deadbolt lock and ended up slicing through a window screen with a carpet cutter; how he stuffed a washcloth down her throat so forcefully it snapped her bones; how he sliced her body and left her lying dead on the floor.
As Hoffman spoke, Cindy McNamara willed herself to be strong: Don’t blow it. Don’t sob.
Bob McNamara, wearing a cross around his neck, said, “All this stuff brings things back.”
Several other family members were there, too, including Kathy Woodsmall and her daughter, Andrea, of Indiana — Bob McNamara’s sister and niece — who stood in front of the court building with a banner bearing the words “Justice for Shannon McNamara.”
All came in part because of a simple concern they share: They want the Illinois court system to remember Shannon.
“I never want them to forget,” Cindy McNamara said. “They can’t see Shannon. I want them to see Bob and me.”
The Supreme Court’s decision likely will take months. Beyond that, there are other state and federal options for Mertz to appeal his sentence, and a moratorium on executions instated by former Gov. George Ryan still remains.
Cindy McNamara said she thinks of her daughter whenever she runs across one of Shannon’s old teachers or girlfriends — and whenever she sees young women getting married and having children.
“I think, ‘He took all this away from me, and from Shannon,’æ” Cindy McNamara said.
She and her family say they fear Mertz might be granted parole at some point should his death sentence be converted to life in prison.
But they also want justice, not revenge, Cindy McNamara is careful to say. Just justice.
“I don’t know him enough to hate him,” she said of Mertz. “Shannon already has forgiven him. She’s in a place where she can. But I just, I can’t.”
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Posts: 617
Location: Clintonville, WI | I haven't met you JohnMD, but I "know" you from M1st. I do notice your updates about your niece and I always feel for you and your family. I am with your family all the way.
And people wonder why my friends where I grew up call me the "switch puller"!! That is not to make light of the situation, but it seems rather obvious where I fall on this issue.
Best wishes and thoughts to the JohnMD extended family.
No apologies for my stance, but this is a potential contentious (sp?) subject. If my post gets pulled, I understand.
Edited by BigMo 5/12/2005 9:18 AM
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Posts: 305
Location: Illinois | I read the article in the Herald this a.m.. First of all, although I don't know you or your family personally I have followed the story closely and I am very sorry that your family is in this situation. It disturbs me that our system seems to protect the rights of criminals more than the victims rights. I believe in due process but not when it comes at the expense of true justice. My thoughts are with you and your family and in the end justice will reign whether it is here or siomewhere else. | |
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| John, I hope this all works out in the end. I am truly sorry for your family's loss | |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | John-
I hope Justice is served...I too have read every one of the posts you have made on your niece, my family prays for you and your family that this justice is served sooner rather than later.
Cory
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | I am also sorry for your familie's loss. I can't begin to imagine. If they need someone to flip the switch, let me be the first to volunteer. | |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | As the token Liberal on the site, I can not see where the state killing this man (he IS a man, we're not shooting a rabid dog, here), will solve anything other than to temporarily satisfy the victim's family's thirst for revenge. That wasn't our Lord's way. It should not be ours, nor should it be done in our name. m
Edited by mikie 5/12/2005 12:53 PM
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| MABIE IF HE DID THIS
TO YOUR DAUGHTER, YOU WOULD CHANGE YOUR WAY OF THINKING... | |
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Posts: 1769
Location: Algonquin, ILL | Thank you all for your support and understanding.
Mikie: I Understand what you are saying and support your views, However in This case I have to go with the Death Penalty as I
know much more details about this individual than can be made public at this time. I do thank you for your Prayers and moral support.
as far as the Death Penalty let's just agree to dis-agree and go fishing
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Posts: 5193
| John Md I hope everything works out,if it does not life in prison for a young animal sounds more tourting than the death penality.Bill | |
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| Fry him, Gas him, Dose him. He won't be missed. | |
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Posts: 724
Location: Southern W.Va. | Eye for an eye, hand for a hand , life for a life. And if he is guilty, then he is a rabid dog and deserves to die............. a long , painful, slow death .
Mauser | |
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| I feel for you and your family, hopfully this will end soon for you and yours, this is terrible you will never be able to repace what has been lost and you will likely find no solice in what ever happens to this human scum, just do what it takes to take all he has left, he pays only time and your family pays the cost for his actions, I hope the best for you. | |
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Posts: 20260
Location: oswego, il | I see what Mikie is saying but if it makes the family feel any better that this maggott no longer takes a breath, then so be it. | |
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Animal Tries to get off Death Row