Nearly all local judges are essentially ignoring the new guidelines that are designed to make the bond system more efficient, predictable, and fair, according to a Cook County Sheriff's Office study. In about 85% of cases, judges deviate from the pretrial guidelines. The study noted that the deviations were “inconsistent,” even when considering the defendants’ backgrounds and the nature of the charges against them. Last month, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, one of the new system’s architects, said the...

Roadblocks, or checkpoints, first appeared in significant numbers in the 1970s. In most cases, groups of officers pulled over every vehicle that passed, ostensibly to verify drivers’ licenses or for some similar purpose. In reality, these checkpoints had one purpose: to allow officers to conduct warrantless searches of persons and vehicles to look for evidence of drug crimes, alcohol offenses, weapons violations, and other infractions. Despite the fact that checkpoints clearly involved stops without any reasonable suspicion or other basis,...

In a highly-anticipated decision, the Supreme Court Justices approved of some controversial laws and procedures in the area of DUI evidence, while they put a stop to some others. Facts and Procedural History Nearly all states, including Illinois, are “implied-consent” jurisdictions, which means that all drivers theoretically consent to Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) chemical tests when they receive their driver’s licenses and, as a result, the state can suspend their licenses if they later refuse consent. In recent years, some...

A Brief History of Search Warrants

posted on 7/11/16

When the United States federal government first sat down to business in the spring of 1789, one of the first items on the agenda was a slate of proposed constitutional...

Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 in the United States Constitution gives Congress broad powers to regulate drug crimes, according to a 7-1 decision in Taylor v. United States. Facts and Procedural History In 2009, Anthony Taylor and other members of the self-styled “Southwest Goonz” staged home invasion robberies of two local marijuana dealers. At each location, Mr. Taylor and his cohorts demanded drugs and money, but left with little more than personal items, like cellphones and less than $50...

It was not a good day for criminal defendants recently when the same time the Court released Taylor v. United States, it declared that some illegally-seized evidence is admissible as long as the peace officers acted in good faith. Facts and Procedural History The events leading up to Utah v. Strieff took place in South Salt Lake City. A narcotics officer suspected that a local residence was a drug house, even though he had almost no basis for this assessment...

A Lake County man was arrested and charged in a massive drug case that involved high school and university students in two states. According to Lake County Sheriff John Buncich, 20-year-old Petar Velkov began his drug selling and buying activity at Crown Point High School and continued these habits at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, where he conducted transactions with students at that campus and in Bloomington, Indianapolis, and West Lafayette. Sheriff Buncich called the investigation “eye opening” because of...

Some people erroneously assume that once they are eligible for driver's license reinstatement following DUI convictions, they can assemble their paperwork, make an appointment with a nameless bureaucrat, say they have “learned their lesson” about the dangers of drinking and driving, briefly explain their hardship, pay a reinstatement fee, and drive off the parking lot. However, it is not that easy, at least in most cases. The counseling and education requirements are only the bare minimum necessary for reinstatement, so...

Lawyers and witnesses can greatly influence the outcome of a criminal trial by the words they use, and this dynamic is particularly present in DUI cases that involve Field Sobriety Tests. In these trials, the officer always says that the suspect “failed” the tests, and that word gives jurors the impression that the suspect performed extremely poorly. That is because most of us believe that people fail tests when they get most of the questions wrong. But when officers use...

Chicago Police Department leaders are helping officers gear up for an expected uptick in violent crime by forming a special division to deal with disturbances at beaches, public parks, and other summertime gathering locations. At least 100 officers are eligible to participate in the program, which involves ATV, horseback, and bicycle beach patrols as well as an increased presence in suspected gang areas. Additionally, traffic enforcement officers on Lake Shore Drive will be conducting more stops and search vehicles without...

In a 7 to 1 decision, the United States Supreme Court declared that Georgia prosecutors denied a black man a fair trial in a criminal case. Facts During jury selection at Timothy Foster’s 1988 capital murder trial, Butts County prosecutors highlighted the name of each black prospective juror in green; the list also contained handwritten notes like “no black churches” and “if it comes down to having to pick one of the black jurors, [this one] might be okay.” The...

Emotions ran high at a recent Cook County bond reduction hearing in a high-profile murder case, and these feelings spilled over into a nearby parkway. No arrests were made after family members argued and briefly exchanged fisticuffs. The underlying case involves a 13-year-old girl who is accused of fatally stabbing a 15-year-old girl; the bond hearing was for 35-year-old Tamika Gayden, the alleged assailant’s mother. According to prosecutors, Ms. Gayden told her daughter to grab a switchblade knife from her...

Local authorities rounded up 140 citizens, including 95 known gang members, and charged them with various gang-related criminal offenses; all but six of these individuals face possible incarceration. In addition to the arrests, police seized $7,000 in cash, an unspecified quantity of drugs, and twenty-three firearms. At a press conference, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the department focused its efforts on the West Side during the sweep. Eight arrestees were eligible for a pretrial diversion program because they...

Contrary to popular belief, an effective criminal defense often does not begin when the charging instruments are filed, when the suspect is booked into jail, or even when flashing lights appear in the rearview mirror. In many cases, and especially DUIs, an attorney starts looking for defenses before the officers even get out of their patrol cars. Judges closely scrutinize pre-arrest procedures, and in many cases, a procedural defect at this phase causes the judge to throw out the prosecution....

In the 2002 film Minority Report, police officers in a future Washington, D.C. used psychic teenagers who could predict the future to arrest murder suspects before they committed their crimes. Today, the Chicago Police Department believes that it can do roughly the same thing with a computer algorithm. The Strategic Subject List was first introduced in 2013. Yale sociologist Andrew Papachristos theorized that such a list would be useful, and Illinois Institute of Technology Professor Miles Wernick developed the algorithm....