It’s a scene that happens every weekday at the Cook County Jail: a bus transports a group of inmates, all handcuffed, to court in the Chicago suburbs.
Most of those trips are uneventful; detainees are brought to their hearings and return to jail without incident. But in some cases, those buses ignite the kinds of violence the jail is designed to prevent.
After proclaiming his innocence for nearly 20 years, Xavier Walker Wednesday was set to walk out of the Cook County Jail a free man after prosecutors dropped all charges against him in a 2000 murder case.
Walker, 39, was 19 years old when he was arrested for the murder of Mark Madjak during a robbery in West Garfield Park. He told the first lawyer he saw that police had pummeled him into making a confession, but that he also always protested that he was innocent.
Chicago - The Cook County Public Defender wants to undo a court decision that alows holding preteens in custody. The case involved a 12-year-old boy who was arrested last year for his alleged involvement in an armed robbery. A state appeals court upheld a judge's decision to order the boy to remain in custody. Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli calls the U.S. judicial systems' treatment of juveniles "backward." She plans to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse the appellate court decision.
Cook wants minors under 13 kept out, appeals says it can't
"The General Assembly expressed its intention that the operation and administration of juvenile detention facilities would lie with the judiciary and not in the county baord," Pierce wrote in the 17-page riling.
Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli, whose office brought the appeal, said she is going to challenge the ruling with the Illinois Supreme Court.
Published by WBEZ on October 30, 2019.
A state appeals court has ruled against a Cook County ordinance banning the jailing of children under 13, writing in a new opinion that the county board does not have the authority to bar commitment to the juvenile jail when a judge has determined it is necessary.
Lawyers for two reputed gang members on trial for the 2015 killing of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee unsuccessfully sought a mistrial on Wednesday, incensed that Chicago police withheld what they considered key information from them until this week.
Police didn’t timely hand over evidence to prosecutors that officers had stopped two men on the street for questioning in 2017 moments after recovering five guns, including the Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol later linked through testing to Tyshawn’s killing, the defense said.
The Chicago Police Department’s n
