Thanks to some who emailed me, it appears that Illinois is an outlier in its first degree murder laws. In order to prove that the defendant committed first degree murder, the prosecutor must show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant killed an individual without lawful justification and either: * Intended to kill or do …
Criminal Justice
Is Anita Alvarez doing it again?
In 2012 an off duty Chicago police officer named Dante Servin stopped his car in front of front of a group of unarmed black people, pulled out his handgun and fired multiple times into the crowd, hitting one man in the hand and killing Rekia Boyd, 22. State Prosecutor Anita Alvarez would have no doubt …
It’s a Coverup
From the bottom up: On the night of the Laquan McDonald shooting, Chicago police entered the nearby Burger King restaurant on Pulaski Road to see what its security cameras captured, a store official told NBC 5 News six months ago. When they left, the store official said, the security video was missing. Now NBC 5 …
About That Ferguson Effect
Remember this: The so-called Ferguson effect has caused police in New York City and elsewhere to be less proactive out of concern that they won’t be protected from backlash, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said Friday. Speaking with reporters after a promotion ceremony at police headquarters at which a majority of new captain jobs went to …
The Public Execution of Laquan McDonald
The cop who shot Laquan McDonald has been charged, and the information contained in the indictment is pretty horrifying: Rarely have officers here faced such charges, and the prosecutor’s announcement came amid a national debate over race, police shootings and a growing number of encounters captured on video showing police conduct. Chicago’s police force has …
Post-Racial America Update
The only thing I’m surprised about when it comes to five Black Lives Matter activists at a vigil in Minneapolis being shot last night by a couple of white men is that it took this long to happen. Five protesters were shot late Monday night near the Black Lives Matter encampment at the Fourth Precinct …
Sad, Sorry Read: “Inside small-town Louisiana feud that led to a 6-year-old boy’s police killing”
Southern Gothic as a documentary, from the Washington Post: For years, people in the tiny Louisiana town of Marksville watched the feud between their mayor and local judge like some kind of daytime soap opera, with varying degrees of frustration and bemusement. Then came the Nov. 3 shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy. Suddenly, the …