A top prosecutor dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases, including shootings, sexual assaults, and murder, during her first three years, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx gained notoriety in 2019 when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett who was accused of staging a homophobic, racist attack on himself.
According to Chicago Tribune, Foxx dismissed all charges against nearly 30 percent of felony defendants since she took over as top prosecutor of Cook County in 2016.
More than 25,000 had their felony charges dismissed under Foxx, compared with 18,694 under Foxx’s predecessor Anita Alvarez during a similar period.
It was in 2016 when Foxx promised to bring criminal justice reform as she took over as state’s attorney. She is up for re-election in November after managing to beat three challengers.
The Tribune said that Foxx did not dispute the analysis but explained that the high rate of dismissal showed an ‘incomplete picture of her commitment to keeping the public safe.’
She said: “It is always eye-opening to be able to look at our own data and compare it to my predecessor’s past.
“I can’t reconcile what her decision-making was, and how they chose to (dismiss) cases in the past.
“But I will say that this administration has been clear that our focus would be on violent crime and making sure that our resources and attention would go to addressing violent crime.”
Fox continued: “Recognizing the history that we’ve had around wrongful convictions, recognizing our ethical obligations as prosecutors … requires us to reinforce that people can, if they believe a case is flawed, bring it to our attention, and we will dismiss it if it’s appropriate.”
She also said that she is more selective about prosecuting the most winnable or strongest cases but according to the newspaper’s results, her conviction rate is lower than Alvarez’s.
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Replaced!