CHICAGO (AP) — Each time the video was played in court, spectators turned away at the sight of a young man bending his legs and jumping into the air near a teenager sprawled on the ground after being punched, kicked and hit over the head with a wooden board.
On Thursday, a judge cited the video of the 2009
attack that was seen around the world after it was posted online, saying that
those few seconds when prosecutors say Silvonus Shannon leaped onto the head of
16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert justified the 32-year prison
sentence he was handing down.
Cook County Circuit Judge Nicholas Ford said while
it was impossible to know whether Shannon actually killed Albert when he
stomped on his head, it did not matter. What mattered, he said, was that when
Shannon jumped in the air he crossed a "hard line" that can't be
crossed. He violated a code, the judge said, that says "once a man was
down he wasn't assaulted any more. He's out of it."
The sentence was the latest chapter in the story of
a brutal incident that became synonymous with the kind of violence that was
claiming Chicago high school students at a terrifying rate — more than 20
deaths in a six-month period.
The sight of Albert, trying to defend himself
against waves of attackers, being knocked to the ground, staggering up and
unable to cover his body from all the kicks and punches, prompted the police
department and the school district to take steps of security around schools,.
At the same time, in Washington, President Barack Obama dispatched two top
Cabinet officials to the city to discuss ways to quell the violence.
Five young men were charged, four as adults and one
as a juvenile The juvenile has already been convicted and one of the other
adults pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, with two others still awaiting
trial.
Shannon stood trial in January and a jury convicted
him of first-degree murder after only a few hours of deliberations, a clear
signal that they had little trouble discounting the contention by Shannon and
his attorney that he did not actually land on Albert's head.
On Thursday, while there was some talk about
whether Shannon landed on Albert, another student at the same high school on
the city's South Side, most of families of both victim and assailant talked
about what was lost that afternoon in September of 2009 a few blocks from the
high school.
Responding to all the media reports that included
references to Albert's good grades and his desire to go to college, Shannon's
cousin, Leona Shannon said, "He wants to go to college, too."
Albert's family reminded the judge that this was
the year Albert's future would begin to unfold, with his graduation from Fenger
High School.
This should have been a time, said Bonita Braxton,
when the family might have been asking Albert about his prom, his test scores
and what college he was hoping to attend.
Instead, "We are asking for justice," she
said. "We will never get to see his dreams come alive."
Albert's mother told Shannon that nothing he could
say would make any difference to her.
"There's no apology you could ever give to me
that I would forgive you," she said. "You helped destroy a
family."
Shannon did try to apologize.
"I'm genuinely sorry for what happened and I
hope you can forgive me," he said, standing in the courtroom, his body
turned to Albert, her father and other relatives.
Byman had asked the judge to impose the minimum
sentence of 20 years and not the 60-year maximum. He said that even the jury,
after reaching a verdict, had asked the judge to show some mercy toward
Shannon.
Shannon, though, seemed to know by the time Ford
told him his sentence, that he wouldn't be sentenced to 20 years in prison. His
head was already in his hands when Ford imposed a 32-year sentence — or six
years more than the man who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder earlier this
year.
When it was over, Ford allowed Shannon to hug his
mother.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Chicago Police Department, File)
