Juveniles in Chicago are serving jail time even when the prosecution can't produce the "Smoking gun."
A Chicago Reporter review of felony convictions also raises questions about whether the teens already going into the adult system are the hardened criminals who lawmakers intend to get off the streets. The Reporter’s analysis shows that many youth charged in gun cases are never identified as having had a gun. And in many cases, no gun is ever recovered.
The Reporter analyzed 1,376 cases of young people who faced gun charges in adult courts between 2006 and 2010. Most of the defendants are African Americans from Chicago neighborhoods with some of the highest chronic unemployment rates in the nation. The Reporter randomly selected the court files for 90 cases—which represents 57 percent of convictions in 2009—and found:
* One in four teens was never clearly identified as having had a gun.
* A gun was recovered in only 46 percent of the cases.
* One of the gun cases resulted in death. In all, 11 victims had been shot and a combined $1,891 in cash and other items were stolen.
Of the gun cases brought against teens in the adult felony courts in the past five years, an overwhelming number—87 percent—of those who entered a plea pleaded guilty to the crimes they were charged with. All told, they were sentenced to more than 4,606 years behind bars, most of which will likely be served in adult prisons. Of the defendants, 80 percent were black, and nearly half lived in nine contiguous ZIP codes that span predominantly black communities on the city’s Far South Side, including Chatham, Englewood, Roseland and Washington Heights.
Some lawyers, lawmakers and juvenile justice advocates question whether these teens are being overcharged for their crimes and heading unnecessarily in the adult penal system under harsher state laws. The governor’s recent decision to repeal the death penalty over possible wrongful convictions has only amplified concerns that the state’s judicial system is flawed. Still, while a majority of states across the nation have seen their prison populations begin to decline, Illinois added another 3,000 inmates to its facilities just this year, bringing the state’s prison population to nearly 49,000 as of March. The Reporter analysis found that the number of 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds tried in Cook County’s adult court system on gun charges has steadily increased since 2006, on average by 24 percent each year, except 2009.
The Reporter review of Cook County court records found that even after a teen was charged, additional charges were routinely added once the teen got bumped up to adult court. That happened in 67 percent of gun cases, the analysis found.
“The state’s attorneys always say they don’t overcharge,” Rita Fry, a former Chicago prosecutor said. “But they do … so there’s some room to bargain.”
Once in the adult courts, the odds are that they’ll plead guilty to at least one felony charge, the Reporter found. With nearly nine out of 10 youth pleading guilty to gun crimes in the past five years, witnesses were never brought to the stand. There were no police testimonies. The teens signed off on agreements hammered out by attorneys.
“Sometimes you’re thinking, ‘God, I wish they would go to trial,’” Fry added. If defendants were guaranteed a bench trial within 150 days, she predicts that Cook County courts would see far more cases challenged. “But the kid who’s spent months in the lockup is thinking, ‘OK, I’ll plead and I can go home.’
Link:
http://www.chicagoreporter.com/index.php/c/Cover_Stories/d/Without_a_smoking_gun