Bail is a monetary pledge (a bond) telling the court, that if the court will authorize your release, you promise to abide by any conditions the court demands, and to appear at all hearing dates going forward, including trial. By posting this bond, you are agreeing that should you fail…
Pursuant to Illinois law, all prison inmates are eligible for parole unless they have accepted a fixed release established by the Prison Review Board. The guidelines for determining eligibility for parole consideration are when a minimum term of an “indeterminate” as opposed to a “determinate” sentence has been served. A…
Probation If you are sentenced to probation, you have been given a sentence with lesser jail time than usual because you may be a first time offender, and a probation time period is attached to the sentence which indicates that any violation of the probation will require you to serve…
Arrested, charged, prosecuted, imprisoned, but innocent. This scenario is played out over and over again in our judicial system across the nation. While America has one of the finest judicial systems in the world, sometimes we get it wrong and an innocent person ends up spending time in prison for…
A criminal defense attorney’s goal is to obtain the best possible outcome for his client. Ideally, this would be a dismissal of all charges prior to trial or, barring that, an acquittal. But in some cases, the best course of action is to enter into a plea agreement. Reasons for…
An Illinois Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of an Illinois man on charges of criminal sexual abuse, finding that evidence of other sex crimes allegedly perpetrated by the defendant was inadmissible. Without that evidence, there was an insufficient basis for upholding the conviction. People v. Puccini The defendant, Leonard…
About 100 Illinois inmates who were sentenced to life in prison for murders they committed as youths will have the opportunity to have their sentences re-visited thanks to a 2012 Illinois Supreme Court decision. Illinois Supreme Court Rules Life in Prison for Juvenile Murder Offenders Unconstitutional Before People v. Williams,…