The officer was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for the murder of a black teenager in 2019.
“October 20, 2014 will always be the worst day of my life,” Van Dyke read from a written statement during the 2019 sentencing hearing, the day he shot McDonald 16 times. “It was because of my actions that the McDonald’s family has been pained,” he continued.
Van Dyke is now being released after a little more than three years, linked to good behavior in prison. While this is less than half of his original sentence, it was largely expected.
“In Illinois, individuals who are sentenced to prison are, by law, eligible for statutory good times,” said former special prosecutor Joe McMahon, who led Van Dyke’s state sentence.
“When I think back to what my reaction was in 2019, when this sentence was handed down, (it was) wow,” McMahon told CNN. “He’s going to be out pretty soon.”
At the time, McMahon asked Van Dyke to serve 18-20 years.
McMahon told CNN, “I think the sentence given is less than a lot of people expected. What I asked for is less than what I thought was fair.”
However, he continued, “It was a successful prosecution. It is incredibly rare for a police officer in any jurisdiction — especially here in Chicago — to be charged, convicted, and jailed for murder.” Sentenced. That’s the message.”
It’s a sentiment that has also been echoed by some of the McDonald’s family.
MacDonald’s great uncle Rev. Marvin Hunter told CNN, “We never asked for revenge, we asked for justice. And in Jason Van Dyke’s case we think we got justice, because he was prosecuted for the crime he committed.” He didn’t spend as much time as we thought he should have, but he was prosecuted.”
call for federal fees
Many have called for Van Dyke to face federal charges after completing his state sentence. These include the NAACP, some McDonald’s family members, and even US Representative Bobby Rush, who represents a large part of Chicago’s South Side.
“This sentence was a slap on the wrist,” Rush told CNN.
“Justice hasn’t really been served. And so there’s no rest, no rest. There’s no point in saying, ‘Okay, let’s move on,’ because we can’t move forward,” he said. “I cannot rest comfortably until I know that I have exhausted all means.”
A Justice Department spokesman acknowledged receiving letters from two US senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, along with a similar letter, and said the department was reviewing the information.
Not everyone wants federal fees for Van Dyke, however, including members of his own family at McDonald’s.
For starters, he said he thinks some people who are naming McDonald’s are more concerned with themselves than with improving the system. Secondly, he said he was concerned about the implications of imposing federal tariffs in this particular situation.
“If they succeed in accusing Mr. Van Dyke at the federal level,” he said, “it will set a precedent for the hundreds and thousands of black men in this country who are still in prison, some of whom are innocent, that whenever they give their time … they can use it to prosecute them and keep them there.”
Separately, McMahon told CNN that the trial investigation was a joint state and federal undertaking.
He said, “We have worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois to identify witnesses and collect evidence and record the testimony and statements of witnesses and other police officers. This work is important.” Was.” “While I understand that individual sovereigns may prosecute separately, the state case brought against Jason Van Dyke was actually a significant joint venture between the state of Illinois and the federal government.”
CNN reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois about any involvement in the investigation, which was linked to the state trial, but did not hear back.
no video no faith
Dashcam video crucial in the McDonald’s case was not made public until more than a year after Van Dyke shot and killed a 17-year-old.
Police initially claimed McDonald’s attacked Van Dyke with a knife in an October 2014 incident. However, the police dashcam video showed something completely different: McDonald’s was walking away from Van Dyke, with his back down, before being shot 16 times.
“Do you think you would have gotten a conviction here if it wasn’t for that dashcam video to exist?” CNN’s Omar Jimenez asked McMahon, to which he replied, “No.”
“The narrative must have actually been directed and controlled by members of the Chicago Police Department,” McMahon said. “His attempts to control the story of what Jason Van Dyke did and how different it was from what he actually did — I think backfired.”
Hunter described what happened that night as a modern-day lynching.
“That’s what you saw with Laquan McDonald’s – they were invoking fear! That’s what you do when you’re out of line. That’s what you do when you do anything,” he told CNN.
While the critical video horrifyingly showed what happened, it also showed what didn’t.
McMahon said, “After Laquan was shot 16 times, he was left to die in the middle of the street. And there were at least a dozen members of the Chicago Police Department who stood there and not a single police officer.” . Help.”
That’s part of widening the scope of Dynamic Hunter.
“The real problem in America is not Jason Van Dyke. This is the system Jason Van Dyke worked for. And we have to start changing the system,” he told CNN.
Hunter said he felt the sentence was not strong enough and did not take into account the full extent of McDonald’s suffering.
“They made this boy a second class citizen by saying that no matter what happened to him and how he suffered, we are not going to take into account his suffering. We are just going to make a sentence that you Everyone will be satisfied because he is going to jail. And you all (on the other side of the issue) will be satisfied because he didn’t spend his life in prison,” Hunter said.
“The justice system in this country was not built that way. If you’re wrong, you should pay for what you’ve done.”
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