The Chicago Sun-Times ran a story in mid-November about a criminal trespass case. A man had attempted to enter a woman's home through an unlocked first-floor window. The woman confronted him before he actually entered her home, and he fled. Police arrested him shortly...
It is difficult enough to be arrested and charged with a crime, but the stress is even worse if you do not understand what the charges are. There are times when police and attorneys use legal terms that make no sense to someone who has been detained or that sound like...
The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program provides an easy framework for discussing different types of crime. The UCR program assigns each type of crime to one of three categories: crimes against property, crimes against the person and crimes against society. For...
Halloween is on a Saturday this year, and that generally means that both children and adults will be out in force. Trick-or-treating may last longer or start a little later, because it's not a school night. The same may be true for grown-up Halloween celebrations....
Imagine you live in Detroit but you have taken a few days off to visit Chicago. One afternoon your house sitter texts you that two Detroit police officers had been looking for you. They had a warrant for your arrest: You are sure this has something to do with a large...
We have been discussing the Illinois approach to overturning wrongful convictions. It's important to remember that a conviction is only wrongful if the man or woman did not commit the crime. In Illinois, though, being pardoned is not the same thing as establishing...
We are returning to wrongful convictions and certificates of innocence, picking up where we left off in our Aug. 26 post. It is important to remember that convictions are overturned or set aside for a number of reasons. There may have been procedural errors during the...
Before we even begin talking about the probationary system, consider this amazing fact: according to federal data, only about two-thirds of people who are placed on probation actually complete their probationary term.It's a jarring statistic because many people would...
Illinois is not the only state nor is Chicago the only city that time and again finds itself addressing wrongful convictions. It may be a coincidence that the stories are remarkably similar regardless of where they took place. A crime occurs. The police identify a...
Two recent exonerations in Cook County show just how difficult it can be to clear your name following a wrongful conviction. When we left off in our last post, we were talking about Daniel Andersen's situation.Andersen had been convicted of murder and attempted...
