In the United States,a district attorney (DA),county attorney,county prosecutor,state's attorney,prosecuting attorney,commonwealth's attorney,state attorney or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a local government area,typically a county or a group of counties. The exact and scope of the office varies by state. Generally,the prosecutor represents the people of the jurisdiction. With the exception of three states,district attorneys are elected,unlike similar roles in other common law jurisdictions.
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against the defendant,an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically,the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.
Operation Greylord was an investigation conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,the IRS Criminal Investigation Division,the U.S. Postal Inspection Service,the Chicago Police Department Internal Affairs Division and the Illinois State Police into corruption in the judiciary of Cook County,Illinois. The FBI named the investigation "Operation Greylord" after the curly wigs worn by British judges.
Anthony Porter was a Chicago resident known for having been exonerated in 1999 of the murder in 1982 of two teenagers on the South Side of the city. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1983,and served 17 years on death row. He was exonerated following introduction of new evidence by Northwestern University professors and students from the Medill School of Journalism as part of their investigation for the school's Innocence Project. Porter's appeals had been repeatedly rejected,including by the US Supreme Court,and he was once 50 hours away from execution.
Katherine Fernandez Rundle is the current State Attorney for Miami-Dade County in Florida.
Paul D. Froehlich was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives representing the 56th district,where he served from 2003 to 2011.
A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained,while others are employed by the various jurisdictions with criminal courts for appointment to represent indigent persons;the latter are generally called public defenders. The terminology is imprecise because each jurisdiction may have different practices with various levels of input from country to country. Some jurisdictions use a rotating system of appointments,with judges appointing a private practice attorney or firm for each case.
Drew Walter Peterson is an American convicted murderer and former Bolingbrook,Illinois,police sergeant who was found guilty in 2012 of the murder of his third wife,Kathleen Savio,a few months after their 2003 divorce. Peterson first received national publicity in 2007 when his fourth wife,Stacy Ann Cales Peterson,disappeared. Although the police and Stacy Ann's family suspect foul play,she has never been found.
Rolando Cruz is an American man known for having been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death,along with co-defendant Alejandro Hernandez,for the 1983 kidnapping,rape,and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in DuPage County,Illinois. The police had no substantive physical evidence linking the two men to the crime. Their first trial was jointly in 1987,and their statements were used against each other and a third defendant.
Suzanne Elizabeth Brown Conlon is an American attorney and jurist who is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The Cook County State's Attorney functions as the state of Illinois's district attorney for Cook County,Illinois,and heads the second-largest prosecutor's office in the United States. The office has over 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In addition to direct criminal prosecution,the state's attorney's office files legal actions to enforce child support orders,protect consumers and the elderly from exploitation,and assist thousands of victims of domestic violence every year.
Illinois's wiretapping law was a "two-party consent" law. Illinois made it a crime to use an "eavesdropping device" to overhear or record a phone call or conversation without the consent of all parties to the conversation. The law was ruled unconstitutional in 2014 by the Illinois Supreme Court,but was replaced by a near-identical law later that same year.
Robert P. McCulloch is an American former prosecutor who was the American prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County,Missouri from 1991 until 2019. A Democrat,McCulloch historically had bipartisan support as a prosecutor and won reelection in 1994,1998,2002,2006,2010 and 2014,often unopposed,but by wide margins when he had an opponent. McCulloch held the highest paid position within St. Louis County government with an annual salary of $160,000. In 2018,he lost his bid for reelection in the Democratic primary to reformist challenger Wesley Bell by a 13.24% margin.
The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20,2014,in Chicago,Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer,Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street,refusing to put down a knife,and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly,leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable,and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproved after a video of the encounter was released,showing that McDonald was walking away.
Assata's Daughters is an American black power organization of young radical African-American women and girls in Chicago,which operates through a Black,queer,feminist lens,that focuses on political education,organizing,and revolutionary services. The group is dedicated to radical liberatory activism in the tradition of Assata Shakur,a former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). The organization is often criticised for this connection,as Assata Shakur was convicted of first-degree murder,armed robbery,and other crimes in 1977 in the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper.
Kimberly M. Foxx is an American politician,who is currently the State's Attorney for Cook County,Illinois. She manages the second largest prosecutor's office in the United States,consisting of approximately 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In 2016,she won the Democratic nomination for State's Attorney against incumbent Anita Alvarez and went on to win the general election. She was re-elected in 2020. In 2023,she announced that she would not run for re-election in 2024.
On January 29,2019,American actor Jussie Smollett approached the Chicago Police Department and reported a hate crime that he had staged earlier that morning. He planned the hate crime with two Nigerian brothers,Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo,who had worked as extras on the set of television drama Empire,in which Smollett was a cast member. During the staged attack,which took place on East Lower North Water Street in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood,the disguised brothers shouted racial and homophobic slurs while one poured bleach on Smollett and the other placed a noose around his neck. In addition to falsely reporting that he had been attacked by two unknown individuals,Smollett described one of them as a white male. He also told police the men shouted "This is MAGA country" during the attack,a reference to the Trumpist political slogan "Make America Great Again". The brothers later testified that Smollett staged the attack near a surveillance camera so that video of it could be publicized.
Jack O'Malley was an American politician who served as Cook County State's Attorney from 1990 through 1996 and as a judge on the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court from 2000 through 2010.
On March 29,2021,Adam Toledo,a 13-year-old Latino American boy,was shot and killed by Chicago Police Department (CPD) officer Eric Stillman in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago at 2:38am local time.
William Elias "Bill" Conway III is an American politician,attorney,businessman,and military veteran. He is the alderman for the 34th ward in the Chicago City Council,having won the 2023 election for the office.
