I once in Chicago represented a young man arrested and charged with murder. The murder happened after a failed car jacking in the south side neighborhood of Gage Park.The entire case was a police fabrication and I knew it. How did I know? As soon as I shook my client’s hand I knew he wasn’t a killer. When you’re around criminals every day, you learn to easily spot the violent ones; there’s an unmistakable hardness to them and their eyes are somehow darker. This young man, my new client, would go out his way to not step on a bug…
Continue Reading A Lazy Detective and an Innocent Man Arrested

This is an old blog post I wrote when I was still practicing in Chicago. This was a very unique case. I was just 40 years-old trying a career case that was like pitching game seven of The World Series and quarterbackingThe Super Bowl all wrapped together. The pressure was immeasurable. Had he been convicted my client would have spent the rest of his life in prison. What follows is a long read but, I think, it’s worth it. My second novel, “Concealed Carry,” was loosely based on this case but wholly different factually.

In early August 2009,…
Continue Reading The Case That Couldn't Be Won…But Was

I found a recent Illinois Supreme Court decision interesting. The court in People v. Manning addressed an interesting issue….whether jurors’ inability to unanimously agree upon whether a mitigating factor exists, for purposes of second-degree murder, results in a finding of first-degree murder, as charged and as necessarily found by the jury in the required statutory progression.

My last jury trial in Chicago was a first-degree murder case that I tried as self-defense, which is what the Manning case was about.

Second degree murder is first-degree murder but with mitigating factors present. In other words, the defendant caused the death of…
Continue Reading Defendant Has The Burden to Prove Mitigating Factors in 2nd Degree Murder