The Wheels Of Justice Need Greasing

People get mugged every day in Chicago. The police have their hands full in dealing with all the cases. The prosecutors don't have time to dwell on individual incidents. And so the criminals sit in jail, waiting for their trial to be heard, hoping their attorney can cut them a good deal on a short sentence.

In time, the jury pool will consist of those who have largely forgotten the news coverage of Natasha McShane's brutal beating that left her in a coma.

She was visiting Chicago from her home in County Armagh, a place that has known violence during The Troubles.

Someone decided to rob her and her friend, a couple of girls not likely to put up a fight.

Ms. McShane was beaten with a baseball bat and now sits in a wheelchair in her father's house, unable to talk or walk. Her brain was damaged so severely that she's all but a vegetable now.

Her father wants to know why the case has yet to be tried. They are accustomed to British law up there in the north of Ireland, where judges and solicitors wear powdered wigs to this day.

They aren't accustomed to the scenes at 26th and Cal, where not a powdered wig is to be seen. Only harried public defenders with too many cases and slick defense attorneys drumming up clients in the hallways.

A story of Irish nationalism in Chicago, 1889

It's been three years since Ms. McShane's life was taken from her.

Why the delay?

The defense lawyers wish to prove that their clients are unjustly charged because the baseball bat in question doesn't have Ms. McShane's DNA on it.

Right, so the defendant's DNA was found, so maybe he touched the bat, but the victim's head didn't come into contact with it or it would be marked with her DNA so it can't be the right bat. Not guilty.

So they head to court to ask a judge to throw out the evidence and the prosecutors counter with their own argument and the judge continues the case until he or she can decide. And then the defense finds another issue with the evidence and they go to court and the next thing you know they've spent three years battling before the actual trial is ever heard.

Justice will be done eventually. In the end, though, it really doesn't matter how long it takes.

Natasha McShane won't ever be the same. A conviction won't repair her brain and get her up on her feet, back to the University of Illinois at Chicago to complete her degree in urban planning.