Chief judge shoots down Lightfoot’s request for moratorium on electronic monitoring for most violent offenders

Again, the intention of this reform was to provide relief for nonviolent offenders, but this data does not represent that: “Lightfoot’s letter notes that of the 3,400 people currently on electronic monitoring, 2,300 face charges for a “crime of violence,” including 90 murder suspects……”

The proliferation of EM for violent offenders is a crisis of Judge Evans’ own making, so no surprise there.

For a former lawyer Lightfoot is really good at just ignoring the legal implications of whatever she is trying to do.

She’s asking the Chief Judge to unilaterally announce a blanket rule that all suspects charged with a certain crime will be denied pre-trial release. That’s almost definitely a due process violation.

Regardless of your practical stance on the issue, denying pre-trial release legally requires an individualized finding of fact from the bond court. Yes it’s historically been a rubber stamp for whatever the prosecution asks for, but preemptively announcing a blanket policy like this is probably unconstitutional (which is what the chief judge is saying).

The real problem is that the state’s attorneys office is also no longer requesting pre-trial detention. But Lightfoot burned the negotiating bridge there a long time ago so she’s trying to do an end around and get the judge to just announce that they are skipping the part of the process that involves the states attorney.

City guy here. F-Evans and his stranglehold on the judiciary. Place has gone to shit under his leadership.