Eight years: 248 vacated convictions

During her eight years as top prosecutor, Kim Foxx's office vacated 248 convictions, according to a final report released on Nov. 30, Foxx's final day as Cook County State's attorney.

"When I first took this seat in 2016, Chicago was widely known as the 'false confession capital,' Foxx wrote. "My mission was to make things more fair, just and transparent for the more than 5 million residents of Cook County."

With 113 exonerations that year, the majority of vacated convictions took place in 2022.

In the report, the office credits these exonerations to new DNA testing technology and new protocols for preserving evidence.

With these vacated convictions, Cook County accounted for about half of the 233 exonerations across the country – a record number – in 2022, according a May 2023 National Registry of Exonerations report.

At its maximum, eight people staffed Foxx's conviction review unit, which also brought in three outside attorneys to review cases of people who said they made false confessions after being tortured by police officers.

"The work has been challenging but it’s so important," Foxx wrote in her farewell letter.

"As I think about what this office has done since then, I can’t help but be proud of every single person that has had a hand in taking a hard look at the way the prosecutor’s office was run and helping to make some much needed policy changes."

In addition to her conviction review unit, Foxx says vacating more than 15,000 marijuana convictions and abolishing cash bail in Illinois are among measures that define her administration.

Foxx also said that under her administration CCSAO became the first prosecutorial office in the country to publish a public database on convictions and sentencing.

"Thanks to the 1,200 hard workers who show up for this office, we have accomplished a body of work that will inevitably have the power to change the course for families that call Cook County home," Foxx wrote.