BY MIKE CETERA
UPDATE: 1:30 p.m. -- A jury has convicted Tenney on the murder charges. Let the appeals begin.
It's safe to say Ed Tenney is a bad man. Convicted on one murder, charged with a second, on trial for a third (for the second time) after years of delay.
To say this man has been a drain on the taxpayers is an understatement. And now jurors are debating his fate once again.
No, that's too strong. The jury isn't debating Tenney's fate. That's already been decided. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison for a different murder. So why are we continuing the dance?
It seems to me there's little point at this point to pursuing justice in the murder of E. Virginia Johannessen. It's an exercise in ... what exactly? I don't know.
Even if the jury finds him guilty -- and the witnesses in this case haven't exactly been rock solid from what I've been reading -- Tenney will continue to clog the courts with appeals. And I haven't even mentioned a pending death penalty case in DuPage County.
So why go forward?
Are prosecutors afraid that Tenney will find a way to wriggle out on his other cases? Are they pushing this just to make sure he never again spends a night outside prison walls? No.
In 2004, Assistant State's Attorney Greg Sams told me: "We are very satisfied that Mr. Tenney will be spending the rest of his life in prison despite what happens on his other cases here and in DuPage County."
If that's not it, maybe prosecutors are seeking justice in a conviction to ease the minds of the victim's family. That doesn't appear to be the case either, however.
In 2005, Johannessen's daughter told staff writer Matt Hanley not only was she OK with the state dropping efforts to seek the death penalty, she wasn't particularly worried about the outcome at all. "He's not getting out even if for some reason they decide he didn't kill my mother," said Karen Johannessen.
Ed Tenney is never again going to be in a position to break into an innocent old lady's house, rob her and kill her. Justice has been served. It's time to put Tenney away and put his crimes behind us.
Yes, not to mention most of all these cold cases coming up and getting colder. He went along with the clown Police Chief Powell on these bogus cases just to meet some kind of criminal data. You may have seen a conviction but you will see acquittals soon. The appeals have just begun! States Attorney's office just doesn't know where to stop. Now he's wasted tax payers money reading reports about Planned Parenthood stating no criminal wrong doing yet he has no authority or jurisdiction. WHICH IS IT?!
Heres the thing as elections come about a bunch of silly charges are brought forth right or wrong it dont matter. it is a patteren of behavior that local police and advocates seem to repeat. Fox the grand standing over hotel fruad sex offenders oooh scary scary and it over thrown after they get what they want. its sad why can they just say we helped someone for a change or say we prevented 20 DUIs and gave vouchers to taxi for this purpose. why do we have to suffer a accident and then they clean the mess to be doing thier jobs. the police forces in the area have a great deal of good peaple working for them but driven by peaple having no better intent then to expand thier own power not for the community.
i havent posted here before but if posted maybe i can let some interesting clues for our paper to look into.