Illinois Criminal Defense

Chicago was the nation’s deadliest city in 2001, recording 666 homicides. For lawyers in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office Murder Task Force, that meant a steady flow of new clients. Eight out of ten people arrested for murder in Chicago are represented by public defenders. They’re assigned the most challenging and seemingly hopeless cases, yet they always fight to win.

One of those lawyers is Marijane Placek, a snakeskin boot-wearing, Shakespeare-quoting nonconformist whose courtroom bravado and sharp legal skills have made her a well-known figure around the courthouse. When an ex-convict was arrested on charges of killing a Chicago police officer that deadly year, Placek got the high-profile case, and her defense forms the hub around which the book’s narrative revolves.

Veteran journalist Kevin Davis reveals the compelling true story of a team of battle-scarred lawyers fighting against all odds. Unflinching, gripping, and full of surprises, Defending the Damned is an unforgettable human story and engaging courtroom drama where life and death hang in the balance. Davis explores the motives that compel these lawyers to come to work in this dark corner of the criminal justice system and exposes their insular and often misunderstood world.

This groundbreaking work comes at a time when the country has seen how wrongful convictions have slipped through the system, that innocent people have been sent to death row, and that some police have lied or coerced suspects into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Such flaws drive these public defenders even harder to do their jobs, providing scrutiny to a long ignored and often broken system.

Davis’s reporting offers an unvarnished account of public defenders as never seen before. A powerful melding of courtroom drama and penetrating truecrime journalism, Defending the Damned is narrative nonfiction at its finest.

Defending the Damned: Inside a Dark Corner of the Criminal Justice System

Cases of fraud across the globe have grown to an alarming state.  People have become too engrossed and even at times overly cautious as paranoia.  It is not a question indeed as you only learn to value security as perhaps past bad experiences were obvious lessons.  Checking into an individual’s history records, more so through a person’s criminal history data is a natural resolution prior to any business or personal commitments.  The only way to satisfy this is by requesting a report as Illinois Police Records.  This is a better start indeed to come up with a safer end.

In Illinois, the Bureau of Identification (BOI) is the state’s central repository for criminal records.  Their main role is the collection, maintenance, and dissemination of criminal history record information.  Presently, BOI runs the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the Criminal History Record Information System (CHRI), and the Live Scan Network.  Now the CHRI saved by the Bureau contains information reported by Illinois criminal justice agencies.  Such transcript provides data such as name, sex, race, and date of birth, including other physical attributes.  It also includes a record of arrests, state’s attorney filing decisions, court dispositions, sentence information and custodial data.  

This information which is recorded for safekeeping by the Illinois Police became lawfully available to the public ever since January of 1991 through the Uniform Conviction Information Act (UCIA).  This doesn’t simplify the procedure of obtaining this kind of record though.  Steps which are time consuming are to be done by the agency or individual requester.  

An agency or an individual who wishes to obtain such record has to submit on original form a UCIA request form which is either fingerprint or name based.  This form has a corresponding unique Transaction Control Number (TCN) to be recorded by the requester.  For Live Scan fingerprint submission TCN may be asked from the live scan vendor.  It should be noted that for employers that UCIA requests require an applicant’s signature and must be retained on file for at least two years.  Illinois State Police also requires you to provide a copy of such result to the applicant.

In today’s growing technology, nothing is impossible as simplifying the retrieval of such reports via online criminal history check.  All you need to do is sit in front of your computer, provide the necessary information of a person and obtain a more comprehensible transcript.  These online reports are as updated and are permissible by Illinois State Law as mandated by UCIA.  You can basically perform your own quick look up without having to go through the wait period and or the inks and forms.  Just take advantage of the latest search tool online for a very reasonable fee.

Originally published here.

From ABC News new speeding laws in effect for 2011. If have been arrested visit a DuPage County Speeding Ticket Lawyer at: www.illinois-criminal-defense-attorney.com http www.lincolnlawgroup.com http