Pitchfork

Jeanette Sliwinski-- the woman responsible for the deaths of Chicago rock scene fixtures Michael Dahlquist (Silkworm), Douglas Meis (the Dials), and John Glick (the Returnables)-- will leave prison starting October 2, according to reports from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

She'll have served less than half of her eight-year sentence for reckless homicide.

On July 14, 2005 in Skokie, Illinois, Sliwinski was going almost 90 mph when she crashed her Mustang into a Honda Civic carrying Dahlquist, Meis, and Glick, who were out for lunch. Sliwinski was attempting suicide. Instead, she killed three people and merely broke her own ankle.

Sliwinski was prosecuted on three counts of first-degree murder, but on October 26, 2007, Cook County Circuit Judge Garritt Howard declared her guilty on a lesser charge: reckless homicide. The prosecutors asked for a sentence of 30 years. Howard gave her eight.

So how is Sliwinski leaving jail in less than half that time?

Well, according to the Tribune: "Sliwinski's time in prison was reduced by a sentencing law that governs many Illinois crimes other than murder and routinely cuts sentences in half, turning her eight-year sentence into four years. She also got credit for roughly two years and four months spent in the Cook County Jail awaiting trial, plus six months off for good behavior. Another three months were trimmed because she received counseling in prison."

For obvious reasons, the victims' friends and family members are incredibly upset about Sliwinski's early release from prison.

Scott Meis, Douglas' younger brother, told the Tribune: "The sentence was so light. Here we are, three years later, and she's walking out? For killing three people? That's amazing."

Brent Fowler, the former Skokie police commander on the case, thinks Sliwinski should have been sentenced for murder. He told the Tribune: "The moral side of me is crying out for justice...She took the life of three innocent people who were going to lunch. If that's not a travesty of justice, I don't know what is."

Sliwinski's lawyer, Thomas Breen, told the Tribune: "We have to get out of the mind-set... that [keeping a defendant in prison] fills the loss of the family somehow."

Breen's right, but the facts surrounding Sliwinski's light sentence and early release are too complicated to paint the outrage against it as just a thirst for revenge on the parts of the victims' loved ones.

It's clear that Sliwinski has some pretty serious mental problems. According to the Tribune, at the trial a psychiatrist testified in her defense, saying she suffered from a bipolar disorder with psychotic episodes. Prosecutors called these symptoms contrived and pointed to her history of drug and alcohol abuse to prove her guilt.

Whether Sliwinski is mentally ill, an alcoholic/drug addict, or both, there are questions remaining that betray the complexity of the issue: Was her punishment harsh enough? Is she still suicidal? Is she at risk for doing something like this again? Might she and the community be better served by keeping her under closer supervision?