Kim Foxx calls for statewide commission to investigate wrongful convictions in Illinois
Kim Foxx says Illinois should create a commission to explore its dubious distinction as the state that leads the nation in vacating wrongful convictions.
Since becoming the top prosecutor in Cook County in 2017 Foxx's office has vacated 253 convictions resulting in Illinois becoming the state with the highest number of exonerations for the fifth year in a row.
"It doesn't bring me joy that we lead the country in the vacating of wrongful convictions. That's not something we should ever take pride in," Foxx said in July 2023 at a "Keeping Up With Kim" event at on the campus of South Suburban Community College in South Holland.
"What I would love to see in the next General Assembly is legislation around a statewide commission that will be able to make sure that no matter what part of the state you live in that they have the resources and the commitment to ensure that nobody is in prison for a crime they didn't commit and that it could be funded to be able to get those people home," Foxx said.
Upon taking office Foxx formed a conviction integrity unity and says that during her first year the Cook County State's Attorney's Office received ten times the number of requests to review cases than her predecessor.
Foxx vacated 15 convictions in November 2017 as part of the county's first ever mass-exoneration.
In August of 2022, Foxx's office vacated the convictions of 8 people framed by former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who has been accused of framing more than 70 people for murder in the Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago resulting in a combined 850 years of wrongful incarceration for crimes they didn't commit.
Many of the exonerations came after the conviction integrity unit found patterns of coerced statements by Guevara, Ronald Watts and other officers including detectives who worked with former Commander Jon Burge.
"We are at 253 and we are talking about maybe eight officers, nine officers," Foxx said. "I know that we are not in any way scratching the surface.
Among exonerations Foxx in 2017 dismissed convictions of the "Marquette Park Four", who were between the ages of 15 and 19 when in 1995 police coerced them into confessing to the execution style murder of the owners of a used car lot on Chicago’s South Side. The teens were convicted with no evidence and served a combined 73 years behind bars.
Foxx says that Cook County needs to commit more resources to resolving this phenomena.
"I feel like it's not enough. It's not moving fast enough," Foxx said. "What makes me frustrated sometimes when doing this work is that we know that we have this history and we just act like it's history and not real people's lives.
But Foxx said that the problem of wrongful convictions goes beyond Cook County. Illinois needs to allocate funding for the state's 102 counties to conduct investigations.
"I know that other counties – whether its Vermillion or Effingham or Jackson – It happens. These are human endeavors. People get it wrong. And I don't see these wrongful convictions being vacated across the state."
