If I’m going to root for one player above all others during the World Series, it won’t be one of the Cubs. And I mean no disrespect to the Cubs.
When he was sentenced, the courtroom was packed with well-wishers. Judge Amy St. Eve had already read hundreds of letters championing Kipnis; she’d looked over a petition asking for mercy that had been signed by a hundred people at the Sun-Times (where Black and Radler were despised). Now she listened to the ardent testimony that friends and family offered on his behalf. “I failed him,” his attorney, Ron Safer, told St. Eve. “I should have been able to convince this jury they should treat differently someone who received no money. But the final word has not been spoken. You will speak it.”
I’ve reached out to Mark Kipnis a couple of times since then, but he hasn’t wanted to look back on all that and talk about what he went through. One of those times was July of 2011. Kipnis had been cleared; Black had been resentenced. I wondered if Kipnis would reflect on these turns of fate.
