Illinois man sentenced to write essay on lynching after noose attack
Laura Edwins|The Christian Science Monitor|
February 28, 2013
In an unusual court ruling, Judge James Linn of Cook County, tacked homework onto a probation sentence.
Matthew Hermann, one of three teenagers accused of putting a noose around the neck of a 17-year-old African American student and shouting racial slurs at him, pleaded guilty in October to a misdemeanor battery charge. On Wednesday Hermann was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to write an essay on the history of lynching in America.
"They didn't give me a word count," Hermann told reporters from the Chicago Tribune. "I guess I'll just do a three-page, average paper that I would do for school." Hermann is philosophy major at Moraine Valley Community College.
The essay assignment was not the only unusual condition of the sentence. Lin also ordered Hermann to participate in a "peacemaking circle" with the victim, his family, clergy, and school counselors. The "peacemaking circle" is often used in juvenile court, but this was the first time it has been used to resolve a felony case in Cook County. Hermann, who was 18 at the time of the assault, was charged as an adult.
More:
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130228/illinois-man-sentenced-write-essay-lynching-after-noose-attack
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Alsip Man Receives Probation In Racial Attack With Noose
February 27, 2013 3:26 PM
ALSIP, Ill. (STMW) – An Alsip man received two years probation Wednesday for his role in a racially charged attack in which a group of teens put a noose around the neck of a Brother Rice High School student and threatened him with a knife.
Matthew Herrmann had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in October 2012. Herrmann is one of three white teens charged with attacking Joshua Merritt, 17, last year inside the Beverly home of a Cook County State’s Attorney’s office employee.
The group, then 16, 17 and 18, put a noose around the boy’s neck, threatened him with a knife and called him a racial epithet, police said.
Herrmann, the oldest of the attackers, was originally charged with unlawful restraint, hate crime and battery, police said. The felony charges were dropped in the plea deal.
More:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/02/27/alsip-man-receives-probation-in-racial-attack-with-noose/
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Man convicted in noose attack ordered to write essay on lynchings
Sentence in 2011 case follows meetings with victim, counselors, clergy
An Alsip man was sentenced Wednesday to probation and ordered to write an essay about the lynching of blacks in America after he pleaded guilty to putting a noose around the neck of an African-American teenager.
The attack in December 2011 drew much media attention and led to Matthew Herrmann being charged as an adult with felony counts of committing a hate crime, unlawful restraint and battery. But in an unusual deal with Cook County prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in October to misdemeanor battery and agreed to participate in a "peacemaking circle" with the victim, his family, clergy and school counselors.
While the approach is common in juvenile court, this marked the first time it has been used to resolve a case at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, the county's main felony adult courthouse, prosecutors said.
Judge James Linn agreed to the deal and sentenced Herrmann to two years of probation. The philosophy student at a suburban community college also must write the essay on lynching and read it aloud next month at a peacemaking session with the victim.
More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-hate-crime-sentencing-20130228,0,7368868.story
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