Ex-El Rukn gang leader acquitted of two murders (after 24 years)

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

A former El Rukn gang leader sentenced to death by a corrupt Cook County judge for a double murder more than two decades ago was acquitted today in a bench trial of the same two murders.

"I feel like my prayers have been answered," Nathson Fields said after the verdict by Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan. "It's been 24 years of this ordeal for my family and my friends, and now with it coming to an end, it's like a dream come true."
The case has a notorious history. Circuit Judge Thomas Maloney was later convicted of fixing the original trial of Fields, 55, and co-defendant Earl Hawkins. Maloney pocketed a $10,000 bribe during the trial, then sensed authorities were onto the scheme, convicted both and sentenced them to death for the 1984 slayings of rival gang members.

After the bribery revelations against Maloney, both defendants were granted new trials, but Hawkins cut a plea deal with the state to testify against Fields for a lesser sentence.
Attorneys for Fields repeatedly pointed out during the trial that Hawkins once admitted he would say anything to get off Death Row.

Gaughan didn't hold that against Hawkins, saying that only "Mother Theresa and a few other people would say they wouldn't lie to get off of Death Row." But he said Hawkins' admission to his involvement in the deaths of 15 to 20 people during his days as a general in the powerful street gang made his testimony against Fields unbelievable.

Read more: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/ex-el-rukn-gang-leader-acquitted-of-two-murders.html

[Tempest]

1. So now Fields is free and Hawkins has to live with the terms of his plea bargin

Which means Hawkins is still in prison.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. "...Hawkins' admission to his involvement in the deaths of 15 to 20 people.."

I can live with that.

[acmavm]

3. Doesn't seem like too high a price, does it? I mean, there 15 to 20 people

out there (some probably pretty dispicable themselves) that are dead.

That's a lot of death.