ProPublica, in a 2023 story, reexamined the incident, the legal presumptions, the background of the men and Stingley’s father’s relentless legal campaign to bring the men into court. The three men previously had defended their actions as justified and necessary to deal with an emergency as they held Stingley while waiting for police to arrive.
Ozanne, who was appointed in 2022 to review the case, recommended the agreement after the two men and the Stingley family engaged in an extensive restorative justice process, in which they sat face to face, under the supervision of a retired judge, and shared their thoughts and feelings. Ozanne said in the letter that the process “appears to have been healing for all involved.”
From the bench, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello said she found the agreement to be fair and just and commended the work of all the parties to come to a resolution.
“Maybe this is the spark that makes other people see similarities in each other and not differences,” she said. “Maybe this is the spark that makes them think about restorative justice and how do we come together. And maybe this is part of the spark that decreases the violence in our community and leads us to finding the paths to have those circles to sit down and have the dialogue and to have that conversation. So maybe there’s some good that comes out of it.”
This was after an extensive restorative justice program the family agreed to, and they supported the verdict. They had to face what they did until the family was satisfied they could heal before the verdict came.
13 years of fighting for justice is a long time. After 13 years, if it were between this and nothing, I can see the family being too exhausted to fight anymore. I doubt they are truly satisfied with this outcome.
I mean…
And, well, a whole lot more if you read the article. What are you basing your doubts on?
That if someone murdered a person I loved over bullshit, like grown men play-pretending they’re cops, I would not be satisfied with a $500 fine and a slap on the wrist for the person that murdered them. And also knowing that if I had fought for 13 years just to get the legal system to simply acknowledge that they were, in fact, murdered, I would likely take what I could get since the alternative is nothing.
Wrong. The alternative is hunting the guilty on the streets. The judicial system forgets that it is the alternative, not the original. The old ways of generational blood feuds and public dismemberment are only a few hungry days away at any time.
Restorative justice programs have been widely successful. The alternative to that is the current system in North America. If someone I loved was murdered I sure as hell wouldn’t want my tax dollars turning the murderers into career criminals. Sending someone to jail isn’t a satisfying revenge.
Agreed to because it was the closest thing to justice they could get. 13 years is a long, weary road. Its a high school graduation, a college graduation, a marriage, a grandchild. It’s 13 Christmases and 13 birthdays and 13 years of memories that were stolen from them by murderers.
The family supported it because it was all they could get, and a guilty plea meant that at the very least the murderers would have to admit that they murdered their son. Punishment wasn’t on the table, because black lives don’t actually matter.
I’m basing my thoughts on what I know about restorative justice programs in Canada and what the family said. Here, it’s actually a response to the high percentage of indigenous people in prison, in order to facilitate healing for the offenders, the victims, and their communities.
That’s not to say there isn’t some massive racist pile of bullshit going on, but punishment under the US system only seems to benefit private prisons. Restorative justice isn’t nothing, and I’m going to trust they meant what they said.
You make some good points, and restorative justice does seem to be a reasonable concept. I’d completely agree with you, if it hadn’t taken 13 years to get here. That’s 13 years of the murderers proclaiming their innocence. One of the three murderers died before he was forced to admit his own guilt.
You do as well. I’m not saying this is perfect justice, far from it. I don’t think they’re “taking what they can get” if the father calls it a triumph, they’re shaking hands with the murderers, and writing letters to the court in support of the verdict.
On the other hand, if you were the kind of person who fought for thirteen years and had a news platform that supported you, why sugar coat something that much if you weren’t satisfied?
Those fucking men would be hanging from a fucking tree if you kill my child.
I really hope that you wrote that with a sarcastic tone. It was a murder. They got away with it.
They didn’t “get away with it.” Do you know what restorative justice is?