Articles Posted in Violent Crimes

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Gang violence is nothing new in this country, from New York City, to Chicago, to Las Vegas and beyond, criminal gangs and gang violence has left its mark on American society.

The era of the Italian Mafia is one of the most notorious periods in American history. The Mafia, whose criminal activities back in the twenties, thirties, and forties were so glamorized in Hollywood movies crime families like the Capone “Outfit” and the Genovese crime family became a part of Americana. Who has not seen movies such as the 1931 movie “Little Caesar” with Edward G. Robinson, and the 1931 movie “Public Enemy” with James Cagney?

The organized crime street violence of the 30s reached a climax with the now infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre orchestrated by Al Capone, which led to the slaughter of seven members of a rival gang. One of the men shot during the raid, found still alive, refused to name those that committed the crime. He died moments later without “snitching” on the person or persons that killed him. See History.com

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In an effort to eradicate crime in the urban city of Chicago, the city officials are demolishing abandoned buildings that are magnets for drug users and drug dealers. The buildings targeted for demolition are known hangouts for gangs and drug dealers. Residents of the neighborhood have been asking Alderman Carrie Austin for years to get the city to take down these buildings. Happily, now, the city is listening to the neighborhood residents.

The Demolition of Buildings in Blighted Neighborhoods

The Chicago Police Department and the Department of Building and Safety have started demolishing the building structures located in the West Pullman neighborhood. Mayor Rahm Emanuel says that these demolitions are necessary to fight gang violence and crime in the area. Chicago has torn down at least 14 structures and boarded up about 400 buildings so far. The structures being targeted for demotion are those that are located in high crime areas, those that have absentee owners and those that have no possibility of being repaired. See abc7news for more on this story.

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When we send our little darlings off to college, the last thing we want to worry about is whether they become a victim of a crime while at school. How can we be sure that we are sending them to a university where they will be safe? What should we be looking for when we are assisting them in choosing the right college; a college that we feel will not only give them a good education, but that will also provide them with a safe environment for the next four years of their young lives? The Law Street is a resource guide providing campus crime rankings for colleges and universities, as well as a comprehensive view of what parents and students can expect from the various campuses listed.

According to Law Street, all post postsecondary institutions that receive any form of federal financial aid for their students must monitor and report to the Department of Education any criminal activities on their campuses. This data is then published by the Department of Education every year in order to help colleges and universities understand the safety challenges that they face. It also provides a valuable research tool for families looking for the best and safest university to send their little darlings.

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What is the nature of crime and can it be controlled? From the beginning of time, starting with the story of Cain and Abel, society has been perplexed with crime and its impact on how we interact with each other on a daily basis. Perhaps it is an inevitability of the human experience. Wherever you have man interacting with each other, you will have the makings of criminal elements. For that reason, laws have been created in order to control this part of human nature to some degree, and to the extent possible.

Types of Crimes That Plague the Human Experience

There are many types of crimes and criminal acts ranging from homicide, burglary, arson, assault and battery, to name a few. Cities with a large population growth will have a percentage of all of these types of crimes taking place on any given day, on its streets, and in its communities. At risk for higher levels of crimes, for the most part, are our low income communities where unemployment, squalor, and what appears to be and acceptance of certain types of crimes seems to be the norm.

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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 crime he or she did not commit. Sometimes an overzealous law enforcement officer does something inappropriate in order to effectuate the prosecution and imprisonment of that person, knowing that that person did not commit the crime.

The reason for the arrest and imprisonment of an innocent person due to police misconduct could be attributable to a number of things including greed, vindictiveness, revenge, or just plain abuse of power. Whatever the reason, we all know that it does happen from time to time.

This is not to say that we have rampant lawlessness in any of our police departments. Our men and women in blue do the thankless job of keeping our neighborhoods safe from crime and should be commended for their bravery in the face of a multitude of dangers and risks of physical harm to themselves. Without the police protecting our communities, there would be anarchy. They are needed to protect our peace, and they deserve our respect and gratitude.

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A Chicago man is being held on $2 million bond and is being charged with reckless homicide of an unborn child, among other charges. Bail was set at $2 million Saturday for a man accused of causing a Northwest Side crash that seriously injured a pregnant woman and killed her unborn child. On Wednesday, August 12, the Chicago man allegedly crashed into a parked Mazda Protégé in which the pregnant woman was sitting.

Fetal Homicide Laws in Illinois

Maybe you were not aware that you can be charged with murder if a pregnant woman’s fetus dies as a result of your action. Illinois statute defines and penalizes for intentional homicide of an unborn child, voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child, involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide of an unborn child, respectively. These statutes define an “unborn child” as any human individual from fertilization until birth.

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In the wake of the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in New York and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, a Chicago police officer is set to stand trial in January on charges of involuntary manslaughter and other felonies in the 2012 off-duty shooting death of an unarmed black woman.

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Police shootings happen fairly regularly across the country, and as part of their job to serve and protect officers often kill dangerous suspects. The FBI Uniform Crime Reports indicate that in 2013, there were 461 justifiable homicides by police officers. Some estimate this number to be much higher – at least 1,000 – because not all police departments report their numbers to the FBI for inclusion in the report. So when does murder by a Chicago police officer cross the line from justifiable homicide to murder?

Justifiable Homicide by Chicago Police

There is no special statute protecting Chicago police officers who kill a suspect in the line of duty. Like any other citizen, Chicago police officers must prove that their use of force was justified.

The use of justifiable force, as I have discussed before, is an affirmative defense. This means that the police officer has the burden of proving that his use of force was justified, and not the prosecutor. Under Illinois’ justifiable use of force law, a police officer may use force against another person if he reasonably believes that force is necessary to defend himself or another person against the victim’s unlawful use of force. However, the use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm can only be used if the officer has a reasonable belief that he is protecting himself or another person from death or great bodily harm.

It is important to note that the victim’s use of force must be unlawful, in order for force to be justified. This means that a person cannot put you in fear of your life, and then use deadly force against you when you try to protect yourself using force.

How does this translate to real life? Take, for example, the Eric Garner case. Most people do not dispute that he was resisting arrest. But from the video, he appeared to be doing so peacefully, and posed no physical threat to law enforcement. So the argument could be made that the police officer’s use of a banned chokehold was unlawful use of force, since there was no reasonable justification to believe that he was in danger of death or great bodily harm.

The vast majority of killings by Chicago police officers are ruled justifiable homicides and never brought to trial. The last case of a Chicago police officer facing criminal charges for a shooting death was 17 years ago. Defense in these cases rests entirely on the police officer’s testimony. Eyewitness testimony factors in to some degree, as would any available video. But in the end, the police officer’s testimony regarding his behavior and the victim’s behavior in the moments leading up to the shooting, and the officer’s level of perceived harm, is what the jury will ultimately rely on. And as is shown by the fact that it has been 17 years since the last Chicago police officer was brought to trial, in the vast majority of cases the benefit of the doubt goes to the officer.

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Everybody knows a defendant can invoke a claim of self-defense to defend against charges of murder, manslaughter, or other violent crimes that result in injury or death to another person. What you may not know is that a claim of imperfect self-defense can reduce a murder charge from first-degree to second-degree.

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Under Illinois law, a homicide qualifies as second-degree murder if the defendant can show he acted under a sudden and intense passion due to provocation by the victim, or he actually, but unreasonably, believed he was acting in self-defense. This is know as imperfect self-defense. Imperfect self-defense is an affirmative defense, which means the defendant carries the burden of proof. If the defendant can successfully prove one of those factors existed at the commission of the crime, then the jury may find the defendant guilty of second-degree murder, rather than first-degree murder.

A defendant cannot be charged with attempted second-degree murder; he can only be found guilty of second-degree murder by proving the existence of one of the two mitigating factors. A charge of second-degree murder includes all of the elements of first degree murder: the defendant must have intentionally planned to kill the victim, or he knew there was a strong probability his actions would result in causing the victim great bodily harm or death. It is then up to the defendant to convince the jury he was either in a blind rage due to the victim’s actions (also known as the “heat of passion” defense), or he believed, however unreasonably, that his life was in jeopardy.

Here is one example of how imperfect self-defense would apply. An individual suffering from a mental illness that causes paranoia or delusions may plead imperfect self-defense if he actually, though unreasonably, believed the victim was about to cause him great bodily harm or death. In that case, the defendant believed his use of force against the victim was justified, even if, from an objective viewpoint, it was not.

Imperfect self-defense may also arise in cases of murder that occurred in the heat of passion. For example, a wife who walks in on her husband and his lover flies into a rage, grabs a gun in her nightstand drawer, and shoots them both dead. The wife knew her actions were likely to cause the death of her husband and his lover (she may even have intended it), but she was in such a blind rage due to his betrayal that she could not control herself. In this case, the defense could argue the charge be reduced to second-degree murder.  Continue reading

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A Chicago man was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, reckless discharge of a firearm and vehicular invasion following a shooting at a Cook County Preserve soccer field on Labor Day that injured one other man. The alleged shooter then tried to flee the scene by stealing a vehicle.

Chicago Defense to AggraOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAvated Discharge of a Firearm

A person commits the Illinois crime of aggravated discharge of a firearm if he “discharges a firearm in the direction of another person.” In this case, we would first challenge the validity of the defendant’s identification as the shooter, looking first at whether gunpowder residue was found on the defendant’s hands or clothes, or whether his fingerprints were found on the weapon.

We would also challenge any eyewitness descriptions of the shooter. There were approximately 2,000 people present at the soccer game, given the chaos that ensued after the shots were fired, eyewitnesses would have difficulty accurately describing the shooter, let alone determining who fired the weapon. Another important point concerns whether the eyewitness descriptions of the shooter match the defendant. If the witness descriptions do not match, it would indicate a different person was responsible for the gun’s discharge.

Assuming eyewitnesses could positively identify the defendant as the individual who discharged the firearm, or if gunpowder residue shows the defendant fired the gun, a successful defense would require a thorough examination of the weapon to determine whether discharge was due to a malfunction. If the weapon discharged due to malfunction, the defendant cannot be charged or convicted of reckless discharge. David L. Freidberg’s team of forensic experts would examine all of the evidence surrounding discharge of the weapon to determine whether another explanation exists for its discharging.

Chicago Defense to Aggravated Battery

A person commits the Illinois charge of aggravated battery based on use of a firearm if he discharges that firearm and causes injury to another person. In this case, we would employ many of the same defenses as in the aggravated discharge of a firearm: challenge the identification of the shooter, as well as any evidence indicating he was actually the shooter. Forensic experts would thoroughly examine the defendant for evidence of gunpowder residue on his hands or clothes (or review police reports on these findings) to determine if the prosecution can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant fired the weapon.

If the evidence proves the defendant did in fact fire the weapon, we would again examine whether there is another reason the weapon discharged, other than through the defendant’s intent. A charge of aggravated battery based on use of a firearm requires the defendant “knowingly” discharge the weapon. If the weapon malfunctioned, he did not knowingly discharge the weapon.  Continue reading

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An elderly woman was a victim of an armed robbery while walking down a Skokie street earlier this month. The perpetrator reportedly approached the woman, showed what appeared to be a gun and demanded the victim’s bag before riding away on his bicycle.

Disproving Suspect Identification in Skokie Aggravated Robbery Charge

There are a number of elements the prosecution must prove in order to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty of a Skokie armed robbery charge. For the sake of this discussion, we will assume that the prosecution would be able to prove that the defendant knowingly took property that did not belong to him, and that he made the victim believe that he was carrying a gun (an essential element in proving aggravated robbery)

In all criminal cases, a skilled criminal defense attorney will work diligently to obtain an outright acquittal or dismissal of charges prior to prosecution. Based on the facts of this case, discrediting the victim’s positive identification of her assailant may result in the prosecution dismissing the case or, if brought to trial, the jury finding the defendant not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Eyewitness testimony is often the only evidence the police and prosecution have to support an arrest and conviction, yet due to the fact that victims are attempting to recall details of a traumatic event, it is often unreliable. An arrest made based on this particular victim’s identification would be extremely suspect, and an experienced attorney would argue to the prosecution, the judge in pre-trial motions, and the jury, if the case went to trial, why this victim’s identification is unreliable and the case warrants a finding of not guilty.

The victim described the assailant as a 6-foot-tall, thin, dark-complexioned male between the ages of 18-20. He was wearing a black baseball hat, sunglasses and, according to the police report, “possibly” a white shirt and white pants.

This is an extremely vague description – the victim mentions no identifying marks, such as scars, tattoos, or other unique features that could distinguish the assailant from any other tall, thin black man. He was wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat, further obscuring his face. This will make it difficult for the victim to make a positive identification.

On top of that, the victim was unsure if the assailant was wearing white pants and a white shirt. This uncertainty throws into doubt her ability to provide an accurate description of the assailant, and thus makes any future identification of him suspect.

An adept criminal defense lawyer would argue all these points at trial to discredit the victim’s identification. In addition, he would review the method of identification – whether an in-person or photographic lineup – to ensure that the victim was provided only with a selection of men fitting the assailant’s description, and not men of varying builds and ages, or displaying any other identifying characteristics. He would also review photographs or recordings made of the lineup (or, if retained once the arrest is made, participate) to determine whether the police may have somehow led the victim to choose the suspect from the lineup.

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