A building named in his honor?
Throughout his legal career, George N. Leighton fought for justice. Does the courthouse named in his honor reflect his legacy?
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Seventeen Men + 383 Years in Prison = a $260.8 Million Settlement
In what plaintiffs' attorneys call the largest police misconduct settlement in U.S. history, Chicago agrees to compensate 17 men whose murder convictions were overturned after decades behind bars. The Chicago City Council approved a $260.8 million settlement on October 14 to resolve 16 federal lawsuits brought by
Are the writers of SVU taking a page from Cook County's criminal justice playbook?
The season premiere raises troubling questions about prosecutorial discretion and how far investigators should go to secure a conviction. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is one of the longest-running crime shows in television history, but I hadn't paid much attention to it until a couple of
Ivy Kelly Is Headed Back to Trial. This Time, There’s More to the Story.
Nearly 27 years after Joseph Ward was killed, Ivy Kelly is preparing for a second murder trial. A Sept. 29 pretrial hearing offered a preview of how different that trial could be. When Ivy Kelly returns to trial next month on charges that he participated in the 1999 murder of
The Cook County Courtroom Observer Goes to Law School
From watching jury trials to working FOIAs, veteran trial lawyers school journalists on who holds power in the U.S. legal system Joel Collins has stood in hundreds of courtrooms during his more than half-century as a South Carolina attorney, but one conviction has remained constant — his faith in