CRIES FOR JUSTICE RING HOLLOW IN THIS CASE

I didn't know what to expect from a woman who would spend her summer
vacation trying to rally support for an imprisoned gang leader who she is
convinced was set up by government officials.

But I was intrigued. Lisa Wright, a k a the "Angel of Hope," has spent
several years of her life trying to prove that William Ernest Hope, the
reputed second-in-command of the Gangster Disciples and brother of Larry
Hoover, the imprisoned leader of the Gangster Disciples, is innocent.

Hope, already a felon at the time, was convicted in 1988 of illegal
possession of a handgun and was sent to federal prison for 30 years as a
career criminal.

A tiny white woman with waist-length golden hair, Wright traveled from
Cordova, Tenn., to Chicago last week to dig through court records and to
reach out to local media. She met Hope several years ago while volunteering
at the federal prison where he is incarcerated.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe he is innocent," Wright told
me. "I'm not saying he's never done anything wrong, but he didn't commit
the crime that he has spent 13 years in prison for."

Wright is trying to get the case reopened and Hope a new trial. She was
pretty blunt about her disappointment with local journalists, none of whom
apparently has jumped at the chance to investigate allegations that police,
prosecutors and judges conspired to get Hope off the street based on
trumped-up charges.

"There is more interest in this case where I come from than in Chicago,"
Wright said. "People here are afraid to tackle this kind of corruption."
That definitely is not it.

The fact that it took students enrolled in a journalism class at
Northwestern University to exonerate prisoners wrongfully convicted in
death penalty cases continues to be a source of embarrassment to many
Chicago journalists.

What journalist would not want to expose a conspiracy that involves
powerful public figures? Wright's list of alleged players reads like a
who's who of former state's attorneys, U.S. attorneys, prosecutors and
judges. She alleges that documents were forged, records have been
destroyed, and that a judge's ruling was falsified.

Who wouldn't want to be the reporter who doggedly pursues allegations that
sound like a "Hurricane Carter" case? Most journalists go to bed at night
praying for such a story.

But Wright's timing couldn't be worse. Recent shootings in the
Cabrini-Green area, the neighborhood Hope comes from, have been attributed
by police to an "internal gang struggle over a higher street tax." That's
not the kind of thing that inspires me to uncover the set-up of a former
gang-leader.

Worse yet, many of us thought the most horrible shooting this summer would
be the tragic death of 4-year-old Robert Anderson III. Last month, the
youngster was shot to death at his family's backyard reunion by a man who
was aiming at someone sitting on a stoop.

Last Saturday, 10-year-old Stevie Perry was shot in the head while he was
drawing cartoons in the front room of his West Side home. He died Sunday.
Cornelius Jackson Jr., 6, and Yarieda Villarreal, 13, were also shot last
week. Cornelius has been released from the hospital and on Monday, Yarieda
remained in a coma.

While most neighborhoods are enjoying a summer of peace, some residents are
dodging bullets as if they live in a war zone.

Jim Gierach, a tireless advocate for the decriminalization of drugs as a
way to end the violence, called a few days before Wright's visit. Like
Wright, he is also on a crusade. He believes deeply that an end to the drug
war would be enough to end the widespread violence. I see his point, too.
But when confronted with the never-ending story of slain children who are
buried and forgotten by most, I become weary of even well-reasoned
arguments. People like Hope put us in a terrible dilemma. I'm supposed to
care. But my file cabinets are stuffed with prisoners' pleas for justice. I
can't hear their cries over the screams of those who have been victimized
by the violence that these gang members were such a part of. What would be
the redeeming value for society in someone taking up Hope's crusade? I
asked Wright more than once.

Her answer was always the same: "Justice denied one of us is justice denied
us all." That is certainly true.

But the heart has only so much room for compassion. While Hope's change may
come, there will be no change for the children who have been killed in the
crossfire. Mary A. Mitchell (marym@suntimes.com) appears regularly on "Fox
News in the Morning," 7-9 a.m. on WFLD-Channel 32.