Eye On Illinois: Records of accused killers expose governmental system’s loopholes

Nathan Sweeney, meet Sean Grayson.

Grayson is the former Sangamon County deputy accused of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in connection with the July 6 shooting death of Sonya Massey.

Sweeney was driving a semitrailer on March 28 when it struck a DeKalb County squad car parked on a shoulder, a crash that killed Deputy Christina Musil.

Both deaths were tragic and avoidable but for several systemic failures on the way. Both men are as yet only accused of crimes resulting in the fatalities, both have been allowed to stay home while awaiting trial, and both cases are political footballs, with different teams on offense and defense.

Thursday’s column suggested Grayson tests the principles informing Illinois’ elimination of cash bail, but only obliquely referenced the background of Grayson’s employment history which has many people wondering how he was still a sworn law officer in the position to end someone’s life.

Shaw Media and Capitol News Illinois reported on Sweeney’s situation last week, as state Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, and Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat, have issued statements addressing the history of Sweeney’s Kane County criminal record and whether he should’ve been allowed to hold a commercial driver license that put him on the job the night Musil’s life ended.

Both stories expose the loopholes in a governmental system ostensibly designed to be fair and balanced. Even in the most generous light, these frameworks are always potentially vulnerable if they encounter a person who doesn’t want to be rehabilitated, who can’t execute good judgment, who cannot accept or understand when they’ve been given a chance to change behavior to walk the straight and narrow.

Before Massey and Musil died, the people accused of killing them left other harms in their wake – emotional, physical and in some cases criminal – and while it’s good to now investigate failures that delivered this moment, it’s also proper to acknowledge that no amount of forward-facing reforms can compensate for or undo the past.

Keicher said, “The fact that someone charged with aggravated DUI [of] drugs causing death and reckless homicide is free after killing a police officer demonstrates the frightening limitations of the SAFE-T Act.” In fact, it does the opposite, by demonstrating a focus, as with Grayson, on whether a suspect will flee or commit further harm and not aligned with the career of the victim or suspect.

Prior records, criminal or otherwise, should factor strongly into decisions about whether suspects can abide by release conditions. If judges and prosecutors aren’t so empowered, lawmakers have an invitation to act.

Keicher wisely focused on the root causes of imperfect systems. Hopefully, others embrace his macro approach in favor of narrow overreactions.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.