The Cook County Public Defender’s Office is deeply concerned about the expansion of the State’s Attorney’s program that allows Chicago Police Department officers to bypass felony review in cases involving gun possession.
News
On January 25, 2024, the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender notified the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Iris Y. Martinez, and her staff that her Office had publicly exposed confidential juvenile records via their recently launched criminal case records search function on their website.
The Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender heartily congratulates Assistant Public Defenders Caroline Glennon-Goodman and Loveleen Ahuja on their appointments to the 10th and 8th judicial subcircuit vacancies, respectively.
The Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender filed an amicus brief in the Illinois Supreme Court case of People v. Gray, which addresses whether a past adult criminal conviction that would today be handled in juvenile court can serve as a predicate offense for purposes of charging someone under the armed habitual criminal statute.
The following op-ed was published in the Chicago Tribune on October 11, 2023. This month, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith resigned. The conversation has since focused on DCFS failures to protect children in its care.
Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr., joined advocates, legislators, criminal legal system stakeholders and impacted people at a news conference to mark the end of money bond in Illinois and the beginning of a more just pretrial system.
On Sept. 18, the Pretrial Fairness Act will take full effect in Illinois, eliminating the use of money bond and redesigning pretrial processes to increase transparency in release and detention decisions. Cook County stands ready to implement all aspects of the Act, including the new initial appearance and detention hearing processes.
Block Club Chicago reporter Maxwell Evans wrote about our work to take take traditional criminal legal defense out of the courthouse and into the community to provide more collaborative representation and services. We will be launching our first community defense center, the Freedom Defense Center of Roseland, in 2024. Full story and link to the article in Block Club are below.
The Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender is thrilled that today, Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB424 and SB1886 into law, expanding rights and opportunities for people accused of gun possession and people on probation, respectively. Our office is proud of the leadership role we played in developing and passing these bills alongside our partner organizations and the sponsoring legislators.
The Cook County Public Defender’s Office is pleased that the Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Pretrial Fairness Act. Illinois can now end a great injustice that distorted the criminal legal system and move forward with removing the price tag from the presumption of innocence.