"Hang the N-----!” These are the words shouted as the young, blonde television reporter announces that the jury has reached a guilty verdict for Maurice Lagrone, Jr. It is a night like most at Snappers Bar and Grill in Clinton, IL., beer drinking buddies, farmers and laborers watching the 5:00 pm news. Not an African American in the joint. If you were to ask, you would be told that most can't remember or don't know if an African American has ever been in Snappers. And when those words ring in the air, no one bats an eye. No one stands up or jumps onto the bar to renounce the appalling words. They all agree. The n----- should hang. He deserves to die.

As for the pretty, blonde reporter, many central Illinois reporters are just that. Smart, attractive young women hoping to break out of the smaller market into a bigger one. Hoping that this case might be the one to get them the attention they need to move up and out of central Illinois. The "Rogers" in this case pay close attention to these reporters. Special Prosecutor Roger Simpson and Dewitt County sheriff Roger Massey wink at some of them openly in court and smile with their aging, cocky grins. With these grins come leaks of information through secret phone calls, telling the preferred reporters “nothing is going to happen in court today, so don’t waste your time driving over.” In Clinton, this is nothing new. Neither is the tragedy of the three children who drowned in Clinton Lake in September of 2003. This incident, like everything else in the small town, has become old news.

No one can ever know what happened that night besides Amanda and Maurice. I suspect that, as time has passed, they have forgotten the truth; they have buried it in the recesses of their minds. Their perceptions have shifted, their stories have changed, certain lives have been lost. This is what happens in tragedies. After three years of studying this case, I still don’t know what happened. The prosecutors, the defense, the detectives, the jury… None of them can lend a hand in helping us to KNOW what really occurred. I can certainly tell you what I believe, but that is all any of us have. Our beliefs in a world where the truth is often relative.

This case is not about guilt or innocence in the simplest form. The accused are guilty of something. Three small children don't just perish in the presence of two able-bodied adults. But the question is guilty of what? Pre-meditated, intentional homicide, or negligence and unintentional homicide? Should our system punish them by putting them to death when we can never KNOW what took place? Should someone be prosecuted and potentially executed because a small county cannot afford the cost of a trial? This case was paid for by the State of Illinois Special Litigation Fund because the county couldn't afford a "life in prison" trial. So they decided to gamble with another life. Yet, isn't that exactly what Maurice and Amanda are accused of?