Chicago Criminal Defense Lawyers Blog

In 2010 the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office, in collaboration with Domestic Violence victims rights groups established the first Domestic Violence Diversion Program in Illinois. The main goal of this Diversion Program is to take first-time domestic violence offenders out of the criminal justice system and place them into a program that is designed to prevent them from becoming repeat offenders. Instead of putting them through the criminal justice system and punishing them, this program seeks to treat the causes behind the behavior. Treatment rather than punishment. If an offender successfully completes this program, the case will not be placed on their permanent criminal record. This is very important. While the vast majority of domestic battery cases are misdemeanors that carry a maximum punishment of one year in jail, a guilty plea, or a finding of guilt for a domestic battery, can never be removed from your permanent criminal record.  You cannot receive Court supervision fo...

When somebody is arrested and charged with a felony, they have a right to a bond hearing.  At the bond hearing, the judge determines how much money needs to be posted in order for someone charged with a felony to be released from jail.  The statute that lays out the various factors that must be taken into consideration when setting the amount of the bond provides that the court should take into consideration the background, character, and criminal record of the defendant.  The court should also take into consideration the nature of the offense that a defendant is charged with and their criminal record and criminal background.  The purpose of the bond is to ensure that the defendant appears in court and that the public be protected from any potential harm that the defendant could cause.  The bond amount set by the court can have enormous consequences for an individual charged with a crime.  The cash bail system is coming under increased scrutiny with charges that it is discriminatory...

The Illinois State Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on changes to the Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act. This Act is commonly known as the Illinois Crime Victims Bill of Rights. This Act is designed to preserve, protect and enforce the guaranteed rights of Crime Victims throughout the criminal justice process. It requires that victims receive notice of all court dates, requires prosecutors to communicate with victims, and gives victims the right to be consulted when it comes to plea agreements and at sentencing hearings.  The changes that will be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee will give crime victims the right to hire an attorney who will represent them during the entire criminal case so as to ensure that their rights are protected and enforced at no charge.  The attorney fee will be paid from the Crime Victim Compensation Fund. This Fund was established by the State Legislature to help victims of violent crime and their families to help reduce th...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sided with an inmate who had ordered the death certificate of his victim and was not allowed to keep it when his mail was opened by prison officials.  The case involves Kevin Williams. Kevin Williams was convicted of the murder of Traci Todd and sentenced to 65 years in prison.  While he was incarcerated at the Pontiac Correction Center, a maximum security prison in Illinois, Williams ordered the death certificate of his victim from the County Clerk’s Office.  The death certificate was received in the mail at Pontiac.  His mail was opened by prison officials and inside the envelope, they found the victim’s death certificate along with an unsigned note which stated that “there is a place in hell waiting for you as you must know you will reap what you have sowed.”  The prison officials confiscated the mail claiming that they were doing so to insure the safety and security of the facility and not to negatively impact his rehabi...

A decision this week out of the Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit has added fuel to a new front to the 2nd Amendment debate.  Under federal law, certain groups, or classes of people, are barred from owning a firearm. Those groups include convicted felons, fugitives and people with a prior history of domestic batteries.  The case decided this week in the Sixth Circuit deals with a provision in the law which bars people who have been committed to a mental institution from owning a firearm.  The law allows an individual to appeal for relief from the prohibitions imposed by this law to the Attorney General of the United States. The Attorney General has delegated the authority to investigate such petitions to the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.   This appeal process is called the “relief from disabilities program.”  The law is pretty detailed about what an individual is required to provide in such a petition to the director of the ATF.  The law requires that t...

On July 27 we reported that the DEA was considering reclassifying marijuana from a Class 1 Drug to something less.  Advocates for the legalization of marijuana were looking at this possibility as an important step to the possible legalization of marijuana.  On Wednesday the DEA made it’s decision public, and the decision did not make marijuana legalization advocates happy.  The DEA decided to keep marijuana in Class 1, which is the most serious classification of illegal drugs.  But what is especially troubling was the reason given by the DEA for denying the application to remove marijuana from the Class 1 category.  The DEA found that there is no accepted medical benefit for the use of marijuana and that it is highly vulnerable to abuse.  The DEA found that marijuana is not a safe and effective medicine.  This decision flies in the face of 42 states, and the District of Columbia, which allow for some form of medical marijuana use. Today, sources are reporting that as early as today,...

On Friday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law which requires law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before deploying a stingray device to intercept a person’s cell phone communications to determine their location. A stingray device is basically a cell phone simulator which intercepts the transmission from cell phones without anyone’s knowledge or consent.  In some cases the stingray can intercept actual phone calls and text messages.  The stingray tower will fool the cell phone into thinking it is communicating with the cell phone carrier’s cell phone tower when it is actually communicating with a tower that is being run and monitored by law enforcement agents.  The stingray tower doesn’t just target one device.  It will intercept the cell phone transmission of all the cell phones in a particular location.  Unknown to anyone, law enforcement officials are listening to the conversations and intercepting text messages and other data c...

The DEA has announced that they are considering reclassifying Marijuana from a Schedule 1 Drug to something less.  The implications could have enormous consequences which could drastically change the way we deal with marijuana in the criminal justice system.  Under current federal law, Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 Drug.  This is the highest classification for the ranking of drugs.  This classification includes Heroin and Cocaine.  The current classification of marijuana makes it illegal under federal law to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes since Class 1 drugs have no current accepted medical use.  24 states currently permit medical marijuana in violation of federal law.  If the federal government reclassified marijuana to something less than a Schedule 1 drug, this would allow researchers to work with the plant to explore possible medical uses.  Since Marijuana is classified a Schedule 1 drug, researches can only legally obtain the plant through a single federal g...

In April of this year, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision in Rodriguez v. United States which places serious limitations on traffic stops conducted by the police. In Rodriguez the Supreme Court ruled that the police cannot extend the duration of a traffic stop, even for a “de-minimis” amount of time, without reasonable suspicion for reasons unrelated to vehicle and driver safety.  A police officer stopped Rodriguez for driving on the shoulder in Nebraska.  After the officer did everything related to the stop, including checking his license, insurance and issuing a warning, he asked Rodriguez if he would give him permission to walk his dog around his vehicle to check for the presence of drugs.  When Rodriguez refused, the officer told him to wait until a second squad car arrived with the dog.  After the second officer arrived, the officer walked the dog around Rodriguez’s vehicle and notified the officer that it had detected drugs.  The officer searched the vehicl...

The gun violence in Chicago has been the source of concern among the citizens and politicians in Illinois for a long time.  Every day we are inundated with news of shootings and homicides throughout the City. When the weather heats up we know that the number of shootings will go up.  On Monday morning we open the paper to find out how many people were shot and how many were killed over the weekend.  In the effort to come up with a way to stop all the shootings, we need to understand how illegal guns are making their way to the streets of Chicago.  Illinois has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the United States.  To own a gun in your home, Illinois requires that you get a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Card which requires that a thorough background search be conducted by the Illinois State Police.  FOID cards can be revoked for good cause by the Illinois State Police.  Citizens are generally not allowed to carry a gun outside their home unless they have an FOID Card and...