February 23, 2008

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 Richard M. Daley and other political
leaders for the presidential candidacy of Senator 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
Northwestern University, who added that since the arrangement had the victim’s
blessing, it might not be unreasonable.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company