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Joseph Pannell pleaded guilty today to shooting a Terrence Knox, a Chicago police officer, in 1969. He'll serve 30 days in jail, be on probation for two years, and contribute $250,000 to the Hundred Club of Cook County, a group that assists the families of police officers, paramedics and fire fighters killed in the line of duty.
Pannel skipped bail and in 1974 fled to Canada, where he lived as Douglas Gary Freeman, worked at a library and married and raised a family. Authorities tracked him down in 2004, and the case has been working its way through the court systems since then, with Pannell initially fighting extradition but then giving up that case.
“I wish the events which led to Mr. Knox’s injuries had never occurred,” Pannell said in court. “It was an American tragedy. By this plea, I accept responsibility for the part I played in that tragedy.”
Pannell's friends and family raised the $250,000, and the donation was, according to the Trib, the Knox family's idea. [Trib, Toronto Star, Sun-Times]
Previously: The Slow-Turning Wheels of Justice.
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I find this loathsome. This criminal shot a police officer and left him permanently maimed. Then he ran off to Canada, he was already a military deserter by the way.
He's tried to paint this whole case in racial terms and only when his options ran out did he offer that non-confession. "The part I played in that tragedy"? You mean when you shot the man?
It's lovely that he's spent the past 40 years living a good life. But the victim of that shooting has spent that time dealing with the consequences and awaiting justice.
Look at the support site he had up. He makes it sound as if he was some innocent babe being dragged away from his family by evil ogres.
http://www.web.net/~freemandrum/
At least some families will benefit from his money. Bastard.