Was the Firefighter case justice, a miscarriage of justice, or karma come calling ?

I just caught a 20 second sound byte on fox 4 about 2 homeless guys who got in a fight around 83rd and main. One of them ended up dead, their weapons of choice, Chains. Yes I said chains. Clearly someone watched one too many Biker gang movies from the 70's. There is a chance I know one or both of the guys involved in that fracas. I grew up in that area, bordered by the White Bread Waldo and the White Trash Marlboro neighborhoods. One of the few people I stay in touch with from those days had told me a few of our old cronies ended up homeless drunks camping in the woods off the trail that runs along what once was the old trolley line.

So while I'm in a nostalgic mood, I'm going to talk about some other creepy fuckers that grew up not far from my old neighborhood. The Sheppard's, namely Frank and Skip, two of the people convicted of killing the firemen . The snitches that originally implicated the defendants are now saying they were pressured or they lied to get out of cases they had pending. So 20 years later it has come full circle, and you have to feel for the families of the firefighters who at least had a semblance of closure and now must relive the whole tragedy over again. There is a vast difference between a regular Joe who steps forward to testify in a case, and an informant who testifiys in order to save their own ass. The former is reliable, the latter is not.

I was reading some of the comments in the many recent articles the Star put out in their investigative series that prompted the feds to reopen the case. It was a mixed bag, some want the case to remain closed, while friends and family of the defendants want it reopened. Personally I don't know what to think. What I do know is this, of all of the defendants, the Sheppard brothers, Frank and Skip, were two of the biggest scumbags that ever breathed air.
Skip was a suspect in a couple of murders that followed the deaths of the firefighters. A guy who lived next door to my mothers house, Troy McAdams , was found beaten to death off of blue river road, Skip and two others were found with Troys car, they were never charged. Another guy went to lake Jacomo one late night with Skip, maybe Frank too, , that guy never came back, at least not alive, again Skip was never charged. A young woman, Kella Ward was killed in a car accident on 150 highway. Skip was driving, drunk and high, no charges. So when I see comments from the Sheppard family crying out for justice, indignant that their family members were "Framed", it doesn't really tug at my heartstrings.

Frank and his lovely, not really, other half, Darla Edwards, are also less than stellar people. Darla babysat for some people I vaguely knew, there were allegations of molestation and stealing, again nothing ever came of them, but that doesn't make them untrue. I guess my point is, where there is smoke there is fire. Since Darla's own daughter testified against her at the trail, I'd say it's a fair assessment that she wasn't exactly a great mother.

I know some of the government stool pigeons in this case. Johnny Driver, currently serving 20 plus years for a murder for hire conviction, claims he was coerced, in fact he was paid, big difference. He got some charges taken away, and I imagine he got a piece of the reward. Joe Denyer, another stoolie, gave his buddy up to clear cases he had pending. My point is that these guys aren't any more credible now in their recanting, than they were when they testified for the government.

So to the meat of the matter, should they reopen the case? Yes they probably should. While they are at it , the federal government should reopen the countless cases of people who were convicted based on testimony of jail house snitches and paid informants, the federal prison population would drop drastically. Anyone recall the Gilbert Dowdy case ? Gilbert was a Kansas City fire captain who was convicted as a drug kingpin and sent away forever. This was a case where one of the informants got out of charges by testifying against Dowdy. That particular witness went on to firebomb a house on the east side, killing 2 or 3 people in the process.

So whats my point to this seemingly rambling post? Justice, that's my point, and how well is justice served when the prosecutors lazily rely on paid informants or stool pigeons who snitch to clear their own cases. People will say and do anything to avoid going away for dirt they have done. Sadly, prosecutors have no problem relying on and building entire cases based on testimony of these people. I'm sure , more often than not, the right person goes away for the right crime, even when informants of dubious character are used, in the end they probably get the right people. But what about the not guilty, who go away based on false testimony, even if it is only a small percentage of the total convictions, it's too many. That ain't justice, no matter how you slice it.

The victims families relive the whole tragedy over again, they are robbed of what small consolation they may have felt believing justice was served. In the firefighter case, the defendants wont find much sympathy here, the two younger guys Charles Brown and Brian Sheppard, if not guilty, I hope it's proven beyond a shadow of doubt. The other three, Frank, Skip and Darla, I chalk it up to karma, they may or may not be guilty of this crime, but karma has a way of biting you in the ass, and the 3 of them deserve the tooth marks they have sported for the last 20 years.