1977 murder suspect charged

Mark Shemukenas was murdered in 1977. It was a particularly brutal crime which received sensationalistic coverage and I am old enough to remember. There were those in the gay community at the time that law enforcement was not as concerned about the crime as they should have been.

While I doubt that, they may well have been right. But regardless, the crime seems to have been solved and Richard Hubert Ireland jr. is now in custody awaiting prosecution.

The victim’s sister was quoted in the Mpls. paper as saying, “[I]t is the family's hope that justice will prevail in the end."

When these long ago murderers are brought to trial there is always somebody saying that somebody is finally being brought to justice. But are they?

Richard Hubert Ireland, jr. is 59. In 1977 he would have been about 37. The sentence for the offense is life imprisonment. Even if conviction for the maximum charge is still possible [and we always hear about how much harder it is to prosecute old cases] the sentence Ireland will receive is 32 years less than it would have been had he been immediately caught and prosecuted. In other words, it might be 15 years instead of 47.

It seems that justice cannot be done, at least not completely. Time has made that so.

But [assuming of course, that they have arrested the right person] we still need to extend kudos to the Saint Paul Police and its Cold Crimes Unit and the BCA people involved and all others involved in cracking this case.