When most of us hear the term registry used in conjunction with criminal activity, we naturally think of the sex offender registries currently found in all 50 states. Indeed, the last thing we probably think of is white collar crime given the altogether disparate...
Unless it has ever happened to you, you might never realize that police can do more to a person they suspect of a drug crime than simply arrest them. Police in Illinois also have the power to seize a suspect’s money, cars, even their home. And they do not have...
Marijuana is a staple of the world of drug crimes, though in controversial fashion. Over the years, the calls for marijuana to be decriminalized have grown louder and the topic is no longer on the fringe, as if it shouldn't be talked about. To the contrary, the topic...
Most people know about "Miranda" rights, and even if you don't know them by name, you've probably heard about them on a TV show or in a movie. These rights are named after a 1966 Supreme Court case, which saw the justices rule that the police have to read you your...
When you hear that someone was charged with a misdemeanor, you know that they did something wrong. But the name implies that though their act was criminal in nature, it wasn't so bad that it deserved the full force of the criminal justice system. Compare this to when...
When someone is charged with a drug crime, it is understandable to think that the accused individual is in a lot of trouble -- almost as if it is a foregone conclusion that he or she will be found guilty. There are a couple of things wrong with this line of thinking....
Illinois has a long fought the manufacture, marketing and use of synthetic marijuana. In our article Chicago Cracks Down on Retailers Selling Synthetic Drugs, we mentioned that the city was among the first to make it a criminal offense to sell the drug and that the...
About a week before the Super Bowl, USA Today published an article about synthetic marijuana use among NFL players. The point of the article was less that the drug is illegal in most states and under federal law than it was to take the NFL to task for not adding...
We are continuing our discussion of a man who was recently released from prison after serving 11 years of a 14-year sentence. He had insisted from the beginning that he was innocent -- more than that, that he was framed by a Chicago police sergeant and another...
As in the rest of the country, in Chicago criminal defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is meant to be a high standard of proof that is supposed to avoid convictions based on ambiguous or dubious evidence.Earlier this...
