Nicholas Sheley, Nick Sheley

This creep reminds me of a program my wife and I watched several years ago on the death penalty. It was on either the Discovery Channel or the Learning Channel, or maybe some other similar channel. They neatly presented both sides of the issue. First they presented the danger of executing the wrong person and evidence that some may have been wrongly executed.
Then, just when they had you convinced that the death penalty was a bad thing, they did an interview with a guy who was on death row in Missouri. He was a harmless looking fellow in his 50s who, like Mr. Sheley, had committed multiple murders in Illinois and Missouri. He reminded me of a coral snake. He would kidnap people, drive them around, and have them make phone calls to family members trying to raise the ransom he demanded. If they failed to raise the ransom money, he would shoot them.
When asked if he felt any remorse for having killed his victims, he responded that if their family members didn't care enough about them to pay the ransom he demanded, then his victims deserved to die. He said he would be willing to kill a child if there was money in it. He expressed the view that a man
had just as much right to become a thief as he did to take up a respectable profession. He said he would defend every man that was in that prison, with the exception of the sex offenders.
He was executed before the show was aired. If anyone deserved it, he definitely did.

Ignoring the specifics of this case, and whether Sheley is "the man", the death sentence is the remedy to all such mindless murders.
As it is presently constituted, the death penalty, even where an option, is useless as a deterent. Because of the lapse between the crime and the execution of sentence, there is no linkage between the two, for those that need deterence. The death penalty, given the advent of DNA testing, should be carried out within 2 years, MAX. Allow for one appeal, by a court not involved in the original sentencing, then execute the convicted, on TV in primetime. I guarantee that no matter how impaired you are by drugs or mental disorder, you won't be able to ignore the fact that the penalty is sure and exacting!
This, of course, isn't going to happen, as will be supported by the uproar of the subsequent posters.

Oh, and for those not f5rom the area and/or familiar with the story, ignore the yips who will post about how "it's all the drugs and alcohol", "it's not really his fault".The local paper is full of all that garbage, which is why I come to the Trib in the first place-

If I lived in Sterling, I would demand that the Sterling police be drug through the ringer for this. What a JOKE of a law enforcement group they have turned out to be. AND the judicial system that let him go on the FIRST murder because they "couldn't hold" the witness?!?! I hope the people of Sterling demand change after this, and proper education of their law enforcement!! INEXCUSABLE to spot someone and not bring them in. They should all be ashamed of the joke that they have presented themselves to be.

How about those IL gun laws. I would be packing if I lived downstate/near STL - CCL or no CCL.

Get rid of this hairlip dirt bag. Enough said. You are a cancer to our society.

yipes

I just wisj I knew where he was....I need the money

Sorry, typing too fast... I wish I knew where he was

I don't know if he is guilty or not, but he sure takes a gruesome picture.

D Chicago wrote:

<quoted text>
This is an unfortunate situation and I feel sorry for all involved. Be ready for the wave of comments coming your way. There will be a lot of negative energy coming your way.
My best advice will be to help the authorities if you can because the police may not be so kind to your dad.

Olivia, please email me at the Tribune. jjanega@tribune.com

centralscrutinizer wrote:

<quoted text>
His alleged targets so far include:
1) 2 unarmed people in a vehicle
2) an unarmed family, and
3) a 93-year-old man.
If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.

In other words we should all pack side arms like the old west.
I doubt anyone of those people would
have had the chance to draw on him let alone get off a shot at him. Get real.

Anonymous wrote:

If I lived in Sterling, I would demand that the Sterling police be drug through the ringer for this. What a JOKE of a law enforcement group they have turned out to be. AND the judicial system that let him go on the FIRST murder because they "couldn't hold" the witness?!?! I hope the people of Sterling demand change after this, and proper education of their law enforcement!! INEXCUSABLE to spot someone and not bring them in. They should all be ashamed of the joke that they have presented themselves to be.

I would re-think who you are going after. I blame the judiciary for setting bail too low or the state's attorney for not demanding "no bail" after his checkered past. I also feel his cronies are helping keep him one step ahead of the authorities. Don't tell me the police don't want him off the streets any less than we do!!!

Cheap-shot wrote:

<quoted text>
In other words we should all pack side arms like the old west.
I doubt anyone of those people would
have had the chance to draw on him let alone get off a shot at him. Get real.

Yes, in other words, we should. Sociopaths won't fight someone who will fight back.

rfgal wrote:

<quoted text> I would re-think who you are going after. I blame the judiciary for setting bail too low or the state's attorney for not demanding "no bail" after his checkered past. I also feel his cronies are helping keep him one step ahead of the authorities. Don't tell me the police don't want him off the streets any less than we do!!!

The DA in question is Gary Spencer, and he's cut deal after deal to keep this guy out of the clink. Don't ask me how he sleeps at night, I have no idea.

Although this suspect has had numerous violent felonies and weapons charges in the past ten years, we can at least be consoled in the fact that he was released from prison so that we could make room for the more dangerous, non-violent drug offenders. This is a tradeoff that we seem very comfortable in making.

rfgal and CS make very valid points. Our police want him caught worse than even the terrified citizens of this area do, because all he's doing is making them look bad. Part of the blame must lie with both the judiciary AND his drug buddies who are aiding and abetting.

Trash.

What we have to admit time and time again, tis the courts, lawyers, judges, keep that wheel of money going.

I went to Isreal years ago, and 2 kids after throwing rocks at the local bus, where caught, they did hard labor in a youth camp for 7 years, without a trial, they had witnesses, and rounded up 400 kids in the hood, to get the 2..the bus drivers kid was one that was rounded up...they filtered out the 2 bad ones.
7 years hard labor, fitting for throwing a rock, and hurting an old lady on the bus square in the jaw.
Justice in this country is way to liberal, but we dont want to 'offend' the criminal now.
We have reaping what we have sown.

If we really had the back bone in this country back, we would not be using the term 'person of interest' but we cant have the pc crowd offended.
If your alleged your alleged.
I had one cop tell me, they were thinking of using the word 'consumer' instead of person of interest.

So sorry for the victims, may they rest in peace!
May Our Lord comfort the town, and its citizens.
Shalom

More white trash!