CHICAGO – Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law a measure that will expose citizens to criminal behavior and defend the rights of the accused over the rights of victims, retired Judge Pat O'Brien said in a statement released Monday afternoon.
Governor Pritzker said those that oppose the law are lying and spreading unsubstantiated fear in a speech before he signed the measure. The measure will "advance the cause of justice" in Illinois, he said.
"We must stop criminalizing being poor," Lt Governor Juliana Stratton said.
State Senator Kimberly Lightford pointed to the death of George Floyd last summer as a key reason the American culture "awakened" to inequalities in the state's justice system.
Judge O'Brien, though, listed nine ways the state's bail statute will be changed by HB 3553:
- Cash bail is abolished. Defendants with pending felony charges can be placed on pretrial release or detained in jail.
- There is a presumption that defendants are entitled to pretrial release.
- Defendants can only be detained for "forcible felonies" if defendant "poses a real and present threat to a specific identifiable person or persons."
- Defendants can only be detained for pending felon gun charges if defendant "poses are real and present threat to the physcial safety of a specifically identifiable person or persons."
- Defendants can only be placed on electronic monitoring, GPS monitoring or home detention if necessary, to "protect an identifiable person or persons from imminent threat of serious physical harm."
- The penalty for violation of home detention or electronic monitoring requires that the violation has been in existence for at least 48 hours.
- The State's Attorney is precluded from appealing a Judge' decision denying detention/custody in favor of "pretrial release."
- The State's Attorney must prove by a higher standard of "clear and convincy evident" the necessary elements to detain or revoke "pretrial release"
- The penalty for failing to attend scheduled court date is reduced to a Class 3 felony from a penalty one Class lower than the felony charged in the case skipped.
O'Brien called on Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to oppose the measure.
From the Illinois Sheriff's Association -
More to come …
