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How Pardons Work in Illinois
Convictions for criminal offenses can follow a person for the rest of his or her life. A youthful mistake can make it difficult to find a place to live or get hired for a job. Fortunately, the law provides a variety of options for people looking to have their criminal records wiped away.
Some of these remedies, like sealing or expungement, do not completely eliminate the record, or only work for certain crimes. For people who do not qualify for those remedies, there is still one option remaining, the governor's pardon. Pardons, also referred to as executive clemency, are a broader option available for all crimes, however, decisions are made on a case by case basis, so having a strong pardon application is important.
The Benefits of Pardons
Pardons are a power the Governor has to forgive any and all crimes. This sort of forgiveness can come with a wide array of different benefits. For instance, the Governor can restore all the rights and privileges that a person loses when he or she is convicted of a felony. These include the right to hold certain jobs, and the right to legally own a firearm, along with some others. The Governor may also choose to make the crimes available to be sealed or expunged. The exact effect of that decision depends on which he chooses to use. A sealed record is unavailable to most employers, but is still available to law enforcement or if the judge orders it unsealed. Conversely, an expunged record is actually destroyed, so it is the preferable option.
First DuPage County Conviction under Illinois' RICO Law
A DuPage County jury recently became the first jury in the county to convict a person under a recently-passed Illinois law designed to combat gang violence. The man was convicted of being part of a drug ring operating throughout the county. Other alleged members of the drug ring are currently awaiting trial.
The Illinois law that the man was convicted under is known as the Illinois Street Gang and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, but is often shortened to Illinois' RICO. The law is modeled after a federal law that was supposed to give police and prosecutors more advanced tools to deal with the more sophisticated types of organized crime that have arisen recently. Illinois' RICO has a similar goal, with a particular focus on making it easier to shut down street gangs. However, these laws can also be controversial. Despite their positive goals, some people believe that they make it too easy for prosecutors to threaten stiff penalties for people with little relation to the gang's activities.
Illinois Passes Victims' Rights Amendment
Voters across the state recently went to the ballot boxes to make decisions about their elected officials, but these are not the only decisions they faced. The Illinois ballot also included an unusually high number of referendum and advisory questions, questions that allow voters to weigh in directly on the process of making laws. One of these questions was a possible constitutional amendment that affected the Illinois Crime Victims' Bill of Rights. This amendment, which passed by an overwhelming margin of over three to one, made a variety of changes to expand the rights of victims in the criminal process. It also gave the victims the ability to enforce these rights in court.
What the Amendment Does
Section 8.1 of Article I of the Illinois Constitution is the Crime Victims' Bill of Rights. Prior to the amendment, the section provided victims with a variety of rights like the right to be present at the offender's trial. The Amendment modified some of these rights and added new ones. For instance, the Bill of Rights provided victims the right to dignity and privacy throughout the proceedings. The amendment modified that provision to add a right to not be intimidated, harassed or abused. The amendment also added a provision to require courts to consider the victim's safety when determining issues of bail and release after an arrest or conviction. The full text of the changes made by the amendment is available here. In addition to these substantive changes, a new portion of the law provides victims with "standing" to enforce these rights in court.
Criminal Records: Sealing and Expungement
Criminal convictions often result in punishments for the offender like fines or jail time. These sentences are carefully calibrated to penalize the offender to the extent they deserve and no more. This is why judges do not hand down life sentences for petty theft. Yet all too often, the consequences of a criminal record can follow people long after they have paid their debt to society. Carrying a criminal record can make it difficult to get certain licenses and difficult to find employment. Fortunately, the law gives certain people a remedy for this by allowing them to expunge or seal their records after a certain amount of time. Expunging and sealing are two different processes, and different people will qualify for each one.
Expunging a Record
Expunging a record is the more preferable of the two options, but fewer people will qualify for it. If a person successfully gets his or her record expunged, then the police remove any record of the arrest from his or her files. Then, the court removes all public records of the arrest, and places the file in storage. The expungement then carries over to other federal databases to make sure the record is cleared out everywhere. Additionally, expunged records do not have to be reported on job applications, and they can only be retrieved by a court order.
The Entrapment Defense in Illinois
The idea of entrapment in criminal law is a valuable check on police power, but its common use in the media and fiction has led to a variety of misconceptions about what is and is not entrapment. Illinois law recognizes the idea of entrapment, and defines it as a public official's inciting the defendant to commit a crime that they were not otherwise predisposed to commit. In plain language, entrapment happens when a police officer convinces a person to commit a crime that they would not have otherwise committed.
From a legal standpoint, entrapment is an "affirmative defense." Affirmative defenses are legal defenses to a crime that acknowledge that the defendant committed the criminal act, but that they should not be punished because of other circumstances, in this case the police officer's involvement. Importantly, affirmative defenses are not the same thing as civil claims, which means that a defendant cannot bring a separate suit against the officer for the entrapment. It merely protects the defendant from criminal punishment. It is also important to understand that this defense only applies to public officers. If a private citizen convinced the defendant to commit the crime, then that is not entrapment. Although if the private party used force to convince the defendant, then other affirmative defenses may be available.
Understanding Search Warrants in Illinois
The U.S. Constitution provides people with a variety of rights and protections with relation to law enforcement and the criminal justice system. One of the most important of these rights is the protection from unlawful searches provided by the Fourth Amendment. Usually, what separates a lawful search from an unlawful one is whether the police had a warrant to perform the search. Whether a search is performed with a valid warrant can make all the difference in the outcome of a criminal case because of a legal doctrine known as the "exclusionary rule."
The exclusionary rule is a rule of evidence that governs whether the prosecutor is allowed to use evidence during a trial. Its name comes from the fact that it excludes any evidence that was recovered during an unlawful search. It also excludes from the trial any evidence that the police found because of evidence they uncovered during an illegal search. This rule is designed to discourage police from performing these sorts of searches because anything they discover will be useless to the prosecution at trial.
Illinois Certificates of Good Conduct
Many people with criminal records have trouble finding good jobs because the record makes them less attractive to potential employers. Some people can solve this problem using remedies like getting their records expunged or having them sealed. However, not everyone qualifies for those processes either because their record includes convictions or because their crimes were too serious. In these cases, Illinois law provides another option, the Certificate of Good Conduct.
What Certificates of Good Conduct Do
Unlike expungement or record sealing, which prevents many employers from seeing the criminal record, the Certificate of Good Conduct leaves the record publicly available. However, it provides an official finding by the court that the offender has been reformed, which can often make employers more willing to hire people with criminal records. Beyond that, the Certificate helps with employment in other ways. For instance, there are certain jobs that Illinois law forbids people with criminal records to hold. These Certificates allow the court to override those laws, so that the person can take the job despite their record. Additionally, the Certificate makes it harder for employers to be sued based on the actions of the employee, which can put many businesses at ease.
New Law Provides Judges More Information about Psychiatric Evaluations
One of the prerequisites for a defendant's being tried for a crime is that he or she is mentally and physically fit to do so. From a legal standpoint, fitness means that the person is able to understand what is going on in the legal proceedings, and he or she is able to assist in his or her own defense. Illinois courts believe it is important that the accused be able to understand and engage with the legal process so that they can be sure of getting the fairest trial possible. Now, Illinois has passed a new law that provides judges with more information about these psychiatric evaluations by requiring the analysts to turn over their notes and other background materials to the court, a requirement that is soon expected to spread to other states.
No Refusal DUI Checkpoints Raise Legal Questions
Illinois is one of nine states receiving federal funding to participate in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "No Refusal" initiative. The initiative centers around police setting up so-called No Refusal checkpoints, which are named as such because the police there have access to a streamlined procedure for acquiring search warrants. This allows them to perform blood alcohol concentration (BAC) tests over a driver's objection. However, some states have refused to implement these DUI checkpoints, citing concerns that they may be violating their citizen's Fourth Amendment rights, which protect them from unreasonable searches and seizures.
What No Refusal Checkpoints Are
When a person refuses to consent to a BAC test, the police have the option of seeking a warrant from a judge to get the person's blood tested to determine the individual’s alcohol level. No refusal checkpoints are named that way because of a specialized procedure that the police have available to them to order blood tests for drivers who refuse to take a Breathalyzer test. The judges, who are ordinarily on call, are made aware that they will be participating in a No Refusal weekend so that they can prepare to provide police with speedy access to warrants.
Civil Forfeitures on the Rise
Many people assume that financial penalties for crimes, like fines, cannot take effect until after a person has been convicted of a crime, but that is not necessarily the case. This is because of a new technique police departments are using known as civil forfeiture, which allows police to seize assets, such as cash, that they believe were used for a criminal purpose. Civil forfeiture is not technically a punishment for a crime, and police may seize assets under it without even having to press criminal charges.
This seizure process was developed in the 1980s as a method of combating drug cartels by depriving them of funds and assets, without having to go through a formal criminal process. However, following 9/11 and the increased police authority that came with it, civil forfeitures have been on the rise. In fact, according to a Washington Post report relayed by the Chicago Tribune, police have seized over $2.5 billion in cash since September 11th , 2001, often during traffic stops. With civil forfeitures becoming a more common issue, it is important for people to understand how to protect themselves and how to challenge a forfeiture should one occur.
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