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Understanding Criminal Trespass in Illinois
There are two different types of trespass under Illinois law. Civil trespass can get you sued in court. Criminal trespass can land you in jail and leave you with a criminal record. What is the difference?
Criminal Trespass Defined
Civil trespass often involves landlord-tenant situations. If a renter stops paying rent, the police will not arrest them unless the landlord has gone through the eviction process and other formalities are met. In most cases, municipal police will not even get involved.
Criminal trespass occurs when you enter a building illegally, enter private property after being warned to stay away, or staying on private property after being asked to leave.
Examples of criminal trespass include:
- Entering a vacant house without the permission of the owner
- Cutting across someone’s property even though there are "no trespassing" signs posted
The Role of Extradition
If you have an arrest warrant from another state or country and you are arrested in Illinois, you have the right to an extradition hearing before being sent off to face the charges in another location. For many people, extradition may seem like a technical formality. However, extradition is an important right.
What is Extradition?
Extradition is when the executive of a jurisdiction, usually the governor, demands a suspect or defendant to be returned to an originating jurisdiction to face justice. The person in question may have fled justice by violating bond or probation. Alternatively, they may have been charged with or wanted in connection with a felony or other serious crime. However, the state making the demand must comply with several legal requirements before Illinois has to honor the request.
The Extradition Process
What Is a Hate Crime in Illinois?
"Hate crime" is a phrase often used in the media and in casual conversation about certain types of criminal acts. Under state and federal law, "hate crime" has a specific meaning. Hate crimes are unique in that punishment for the crimes are enhanced specifically because of the criminal’s motives for committing the crime. How Illinois Defines "Hate Crime"
You commit a hate crime in Illinois if you commit a one of the specifically listed offenses because of "an actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of a person or group". This means that you can commit a hate crime against a person even if you are mistaken about someone’s characteristics. It also means that not just any crime can be a hate crime. The crime must be one of the crimes listed in the law. For example, rape and murder are not listed as possible hate crimes in the Illinois statute.
Your Rights Before and After Your Arrest
It is a felony in Illinois to lie to a law enforcement officer as he or she is acting in an official capacity. But, what happens when the police lie to you? Tricks, misdirection, and deceit are often used by law enforcement in the course of criminal investigations.
Your Rights Before You Are Arrested
Unreasonable searches and seizures are violations of the rights guaranteed to you by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution also affords you protection from being forced to incriminate yourself. Finally, in order to be arrested without violating your rights, the police must have probable cause to believe you have committed a crime. However, the police, in most instances, are under no obligation to be honest with you about their intentions or what they know.
You generally have the right to avoid a conversation with anyone to whom you do not wish to speak. If the police want to question you, you should provide them with your identification if they ask, but you are not required to answer their questions. You can ask if you are free to go. If you are free to go, you should leave. If you are not free to go, you should consider yourself as being detained or under arrest and request an attorney. Your Rights After You Are Arrested
Report Shows 13 False Convictions Overturned in Illinois Last Year
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, a University of Michigan Law School project, 2015 was a banner year for the exoneration of falsely convicted individuals. Throughout the country, 149 people were exonerated of crimes they did not commit—a new record high—up from the previous high of 139 in 2014. Here in Illinois, 13 individuals had their convictions overturned in 2015, compared to 8 during the previous year.
Alarming Rates of False Convictions
Since 1989, more than 1740 falsely convicted men and women have been exonerated by the emergence of new evidence of their innocence. This number includes over 240 exonerations in Texas and 208 in the state of New York. Illinois is third on the list, with 160 convictions overturned in the last quarter century. While the exoneration of a falsely convicted individual can be seen as a personal victory and validation, the need for doing so points to a much larger problem. A conviction would not need to be overturned if the defendant was not falsely convicted from the beginning.
Plainfield Woman Charged Under Illinois Revenge Porn Statute
With the rise of digital technology and the ubiquitous photo capabilities of today’s cell phones, it is hardly surprising that people are exchanging intimate images of themselves with unprecedented frequency. According to various surveys and studies, as many as half or more of American adults have sent or received sexual content, with at least one report putting the number closer to 90 percent. While such behavior between consenting adults—relationship concerns aside—is completely legal, the situation changes drastically when explicit photos or videos of a person are being sent or posted without the subject’s consent. Non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images violates Illinois’ so-called revenge porn law, of which Plainfield woman has become acutely aware this week.
Former Longtime Friends
The Chicago Tribune and other news outlets are reporting that a 38-year-old woman has been charged with non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images for posting topless pictures of her former friend on social media sites. Reports indicate the victim, a 34-year-woman from Riverside, told police that sexually explicit photos of her were posted without her permission on Facebook and Snapchat, and that the perpetrator had left her messages saying there were many other images of her "out in the public."
Does New Bill That Would Make Uploading a Video of a Fight a Crime Go Too Far?
All over the nation, videos of teens and young adults fighting have been uploaded to various websites. There has been growing concern that this practice encourages violent behavior and acts of violence. Recently, one Illinois lawmaker proposed a bill to make the practice illegal.
What the Proposed Bill Would Do
While the proposed bill itself is only a paragraph long, it has several different components. The measure would categorize several different types of behavior under the Class A misdemeanor of disorderly conduct.
In order to qualify as a crime of disorderly conduct, the person would first have to knowingly upload a video to a social media website or a social networking website containing footage of:
- A crime being committed;
- A gang-related fight;
- A battery committed with the intent to cause a person to become unconscious; or
Attorney General, State’s Attorney Promise Focus on Reducing Rape Kit Backlog
In the saccharine world of television procedural dramas, forensic investigations into criminal activities take a matter of days if not mere hours to pinpoint a suspected perpetrator. While everyone knows that an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is hardly a depiction of reality, many are often surprised to find out that the processing of forensic evidence, including rape kits and other samples related to sex crimes, often take weeks and months to be processed in a police crime lab. Around Illinois, and in the Chicago area especially, police labs are overwhelmed by a backlog of work that is creating serious problems for prosecutors and sex crime victims.
Thousands of Untested Rape Kits
According to the director of the Illinois State Police crime laboratory, the lab is severely understaffed and currently faces a backlog of biological evidence involving almost 2,200 sexual assault cases. Authorities in Chicago report that, on average, DNA test results from a rape kit take about a full year to come back from the lab. In the meantime, victims are left trying to put their lives back together without being able to move forward in the case against the perpetrator. Police and prosecutors are equally frustrated, as the results of rape kit testing often provide much-needed direction for their investigations.
Commission Finds Troubling Data on Juvenile Arrest Expungements
Research requested by Illinois lawmakers has produced very concerning information regarding the way in which the state handles juvenile criminal records and expungements. The report went so far as to suggest that the laws regarding such matters in the state are "among the worst in the nation." Current regulations and bureaucratic red tape, the authors of the report indicate, tend to trap young offenders in a vicious cycle, often struggling with issues such as education, employment, and housing.
Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission
In a 2014 joint resolution, the Illinois General Assembly called for a review of the state’s juvenile justice system and the process of expungement by the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission. The Commission exists primarily to provide independent research and recommendations to the governor and state lawmakers on matters related to juvenile crime, punishment, and rehabilitation. At the request of the legislature, the Commission reviewed records related to more than 1.8 million juvenile arrests between 2004 and 2014 in Illinois.
Understanding the Link Between Criminal Law and Civil Forfeiture
Most people understand that in the United States you cannot be sentenced for a crime until you have either entered a guilty plea or been convicted after a trial. However, in the case of civil forfeiture, you can be punished, even if you are not convicted or formally charged.
Losing Your Assets Before Your First Court Date
Civil forfeiture laws allow law enforcement to seize property suspected to have been used in the commission of a crime. It is called civil forfeiture because the process is independent of the criminal justice system. While under criminal law, a prosecutor must demonstrate guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, all law enforcement has to do to keep property it has seized is to show that the property was used in the commission of a crime by a preponderance of the evidence.
A preponderance of the evidence is a much lower standard of proof than "beyond reasonable doubt." In effect, this means that you can actually be found not guilty of a crime, but still lose your assets to civil forfeiture.
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