CHICAGO (CN) — Cook County Chief Circuit Judge Timothy Evans defended pretrial release on Tuesday, in response to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's controversial statement on Monday that those charged with violent crimes in the county should automatically be considered guilty.
“We shouldn’t be locking up nonviolent individuals just because they can’t afford to pay bail," Lightfoot said during a Monday afternoon press conference on public safety in Chicago. "But, given the exacting standards that the state’s attorney has for charging a case, which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, when those charges are brought - these people are guilty.”
The Cook County State's Attorney Office's own numbers do not reflect this assertion. In an email sent to Courthouse News on Tuesday afternoon, it said it approved charges in about 86% of the cases it reviewed, with a 74% conviction rate.
Lightfoot clarified that people charged with violent crimes by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office are still entitled to a presumption of innocence, something the CCSAO stressed itself. But the mayor said that those charged with violent crimes by the CCSAO should not be released on bail prior to their trials. She urged Chicagoans to "keep pressing the criminal courts to lock up violent, dangerous people and not put them out on bail or electronic monitoring."
In a statement Tuesday in response to Lightfoot's comments, Evans said that while pretrial detention is sometimes warranted, a blanket assumption of guilt for those charged with violent crimes is unconstitutional, and so is holding people in jail without probable cause before they had their day in court.
“As I have previously stated, I respectfully disagree that the automatic detention in jail of defendants facing certain categories of charges is a constitutional practice under the United States and Illinois constitutions," the judge said. "Pretrial detention serves a legitimate purpose, preventing the serious risk of committing crimes while on pretrial release. Its purpose is not, however, to punish by depriving people of their liberty for crimes for which they have not yet been convicted.”
Evans cited studies conducted by the University of Chicago and Loyola University to bolster his point, as well as statistics from the criminal courts themselves. The Loyola study found that only one out of 100 people let go on bond is rearrested for a violent crime while released, while the University of Chicago study concluded that of the nearly 4,500 combined homicides and shootings in Chicago in 2021, there were only three individuals out on bail who were arrested for homicide or a nonfatal shooting.
"Contrary to the notion that all those charged with violent crimes are guilty, of violent felony cases disposed between October 2017 and April 2022, 11% were dropped upon further investigation by the state's attorney, and an additional 3.2% were found not guilty at trial. This shows that charging an individual does not equate with guilt," Evans said.
The judge further criticized the apparent scapegoating of the city's 2017 bail reform efforts, in which Evans instructed county judges not to mandate cash bail unless they had a good reason to do so. Crime actually dropped in Chicago from 2017 to 2018, with a 15% reduction in homicides and a 14% reduction in shootings, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Evans' criticism was echoed by the Cook County Public Defender's Office and the Illinois ACLU.
Alexandra Block, the Illinois ACLU senior supervising attorney, said Lightfoot's comments were troubling coming from a former litigator.
"It is sad to see a highly-trained lawyer and former prosecutor so badly mangle the meaning of our constitution. A charge based solely on assertions of police often has proven unreliable in this city – as evidenced by the city’s history of paying large settlements for CPD’s role in wrongful convictions," Block said in a statement.
Block also criticized Lightfoot's punitive approach to solving violent crime in Chicago.
Besides attacking pretrial release, Lightfoot pushed earlier this year to implement a civil asset forfeiture ordinance targeting gang members. The ordinance would have allowed the court to impose a $10,000 fine on individuals for "street gang-related" offenses, and to seize property "directly or indirectly used or intended for use in any manner to facilitate street gang-related activity.” The ordinance floundered in City Hall in February after even conservative City Council members balked at it.
Lightfoot has also defended ShotSpotter, a privately owned surveillance network in Chicago that alerts police of shooting activity in the city. An August 2021 report from the city's Office of the Inspector General found ShotSpotter rarely produces evidence of gun-related crimes and may in fact produce alarmist attitudes among law enforcement. It was an alert from the ShotSpotter system that led to the police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021.
Most recently, Lightfoot introduced a 10 p.m. curfew on all minors in the city following the shooting of a 16-year-old by an alleged 17-year-old in Chicago's Millennium Park in May. The curfew, which passed City Council by a 30-19 vote on May 25 despite opposition from younger and more progressive City Council members, drops to 6 p.m. in Millennium Park from Thursday to Sunday.
Block characterized Lightfoot's tough-on-crime stances as caving to political pressure at the expense of vulnerable people's civil rights. Chicago's murder rate has risen 19% from June 2019, shortly after Lightfoot began her term as mayor. In the same time period the number of all shootings in the city has risen by 29%. Theft and carjacking have also been on the rise since June 2019, increasing by 24% and 44% respectively. These are bad numbers for Lightfoot, who enters the city's 2023 mayoral election with an approval rating currently hovering around 30%, according to polling carried out by City Council's Black and Latino Caucuses.
On Tuesday, Lightfoot officially announced her reelection campaign.
"Seeking easy answers to political pressures about gun violence, the mayor has repeatedly attacked bail reform, often with phony data," Block said. "Mayor Lightfoot would be best served turning her energies to implementing real change in CPD and building relationships with community – essential steps for effective policing. Instead of searching for real solutions, she constantly searches for a scapegoat – whether it is the courts or youth across the city."
Lightfoot's office did not respond to a request for comment on the backlash.
Follow @djbyrnes1
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
In the shadow of the Capitol, a festival of speed April 22, 2024 -
Jan. 6 sentences April 19, 2024
