The appointment of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s chief police advisor has brought criticism from pastors, lawyers and activists over the state Supreme Court’s choice.
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Across U.S., officials alarmed by the Facebook posts of police officers
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Across the country, officials and citizens alike reacted intensely the launch of a database revealing thousands of troubling posts by law enforcement. Top prosecutors in Philadelphia and St. Louis said they are reviewing the posts, and some police groups called on departments to take action against officers whose posts were included in the database.
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Cook County judge, criticized for ‘insensitive, improper’ racial comments, is dumped from bench
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Remaining 137 associate judges get new, 4-year terms in secret vote by circuit judges.
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After courts order new sentence, Cook County prisoner given 39 years for murder committed as youth
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An Illinois man originally sentenced to serve 100 years in prison for a murder he committed at age 16 was re-sentenced Monday to 39 years by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kenneth J. Wadas.
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Blemishes and all, associate judges seek new terms
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Some associate judges have faced repeated reversals and criticism from appellate courts. Some have engaged in troublesome past behavior. But Circuit Court judges, who are now voting on which get new terms, are armed with little information about those cases. Injustice Watch spent the past month digging into the records of the judges on the ballot. Here are our reports.
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Advocates fear Cook County sheriff kept alive discussions of gang database; sheriff says fears baseless
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Email exchanges have advocates and a key Cook County commissioner fearing that the sheriff had not fully abandoned a controversial gang data base even as plans to decommission its use were taking place. The sheriff’s office responded that the concerns are baseless.
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Prisoner who challenged conviction based on judge’s deception wins new trial
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A 59-year-old Cook County man has long contended that he had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison because the judge who presided in the case had won office by deceptively claiming he lived in northwest Chicago. He was released from prison this month.
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Controversial Cook County criminal judge appointed to immigrant court judicial seat
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Nicholas R. Ford, who left behind a checkered record when he retired from the Cook County circuit court last month, has a new job: Ford was appointed this week as a U.S. Immigration Court judge, based in San Francisco.
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Illinois prison officials shuttered debate program; now, inmates sue that action
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A group of inmates who participated in the now-defunct debate team at a maximum security prison in Joliet, Illinois, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday contending officials at the Illinois Department of Corrections violated their constitutional right to free speech.
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Controversial Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford retired from bench last month
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The Cook County judge had been repeatedly reversed for rulings that rejected the claims of crijminal defendants. But voters kept returning him to office every time his name appeared on the retention ballot.
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Judge sentenced teenager to 76 years based on eyewitness he did not know was legally blind
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A Cook County Circuit Judge found Darien Harris guilty of murder and attempted murder based largely on the testimony of an eyewitness who had stumbled upon the scene as he made his way home from a fast-food restaurant.
What the judge did not learn: That eyewitness was legally blind.