Delayed Justice

In the White Cloud trials of Paul and Matt Jones for the 1989 murder of Shannon Marie Siders the juries have spoken: Matt is guilty of first degree murder; Paul of second.

All credit is due to first-rate investigative and prosecutorial teams. …And to the two juries for their ability to judge impartially.

Likely I will have more to say in the coming days. Some have wondered why I wasn’t writing. Simply this: I made it to the first day of the trial and then was pretty well leveled with a back injury. I felt I needed to stop driving for now, and there was no way to get there.

At first I felt such a failure. I had thought that I needed to “finish” what I thought I started with the film. And then I began thinking and realizing…I didn’t start anything, really. This case had been ongoing for all those years…22 before the film came along. All I did was…well, I don’t know what I did; that’s for somebody else to determine. But, I had not been there from the start and was a late comer.

Second, my work was done as soon as the film came out. I didn’t need to do anything else. I didn’t have to be there at the trial to follow it—as much as I would have liked to have been. My presence would not change the outcome one whit. I could pray as effectively from here as there. This was an opportunity for me to grow, as old as I am.