A SKOKIE CRIMINAL LAWYER EXPLAINS THE LAW 1-847-568-0160

You used to live in Illinois, but you moved away years ago.  Since then, you have started a new family and tried to make a new life. Unfortunately, your old criminal conviction keeps popping up to haunt you, so you want to get a pardon.

If you live far away or even where you don’t, do you have to come back to Illinois for the pardon hearing?

Strictly speaking, the answer is no  You do not have to request a hearing when filing your petition.  However, a hearing gives you the opportunity to address the Illinois Prisoner Review Board in person.  The Board then makes its recommendation to the governor as to whether your petition should be granted.  If you do not go to the hearing, the board will still meet to discuss your case, but you will lose a chance to highlight the positive aspects of your case.  Plus, if you present well, allowing the Board to see the human being behind the petition could make a real difference in your result.

If you do attend the hearing, bear in mind that it will be relatively brief.  You may not need to discuss the details of what happened, but the board reserves the right to ask questions about the original offense.  You may also present no more than four witnesses to talk about how much you have changed.

If you wish to seek an Illinois pardon, contact an experienced attorney immediately.  An attorney can help you present your situation in its best possible light. 

 If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

            Illinois law targets organized retail theft as a Class 2 or Class 3 Felony.

Under 720 ILCS 5/16-25.1, organized retail crime means you knowingly acted with another to steal from a store, and while doing so or fleeing the scene, you committed assault or battery or intentionally destroyed the store’s property.

            You can be charged as a manager of organized retail crime when the total value of the merchandise exceeds $300, and you knowingly recruited, organized, supervised, financed, or otherwise managed others to:

• commit retail theft with intent to resell or otherwise have the merchandise reenter commerce; or

• commit theft of merchandise  while the merchandise is in route between the manufacturer and the store intending to resell the merchandise; or

• knowingly obtain control over stolen property; or

• receive, possess, or purchase any merchandise or stored value cards obtained from a fraudulent return knowing the property was stolen.

If you are charged with organized retail crime or a similar offense, contact an experienced criminal law attorney immediately.  An attorney can review your case for your best possible defense.  As with most crimes, the state must prove all the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.  Can the state prove you acted knowingly?  Is the merchandise worth more than $300?  Were you acting with another?  Even if the evidence is overwhelmingly against you, an attorney who is respected in the courthouse may be able to negotiate a more favorable plea agreement than you could on your own.

            If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

            If you confess to a crime while in police custody, your confession must be voluntary to be used in evidence against you.  Obviously, police may not physically abuse you to make you talk.  But what other police behavior may be considered coercive?

            U.S. Supreme Court cases have found psychological pressure to be coercive.  Examples include: (1) refusing to let a suspect speak to his wife; (2) threatening a suspect with the loss of her children; and (3) prolonged interrogation without rest or contact with individuals other than law enforcement officers.  In People v. Salamon, the court held a confession was coerced where police held the defendant handcuffed to the wall in a locked interrogation room for 24 hours without allowing him to make phone calls.

            As of January 1, 2022, Illinois law requires that you be allowed to communicate within three hours of arrival at your first place of detention.

            If you believe your confession was coerced, your attorney may file a motion to suppress any statements you might have made.  The state must then show your confession was voluntary by preponderance of the evidence.  If the state fails to do so, the judge may suppress your statements and even dismiss your case, provided there was no other evidence against you that arose outside the coercion.  Bear in mind that whether your detention was coercive is a highly fact-based determination which different judges may see very differently.  Therefore, it is often important to find an attorney who is familiar with your courthouse in order to present your case in its best possible light.

If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

You had a conviction for aggravated battery 25 years ago.  You even served a few months in jail before your attorney made a deal for probation.  Now you want to seek a pardon, and you want the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to know that you are ill enough to go on disability.

Do serious health problems make you a better candidate for a pardon?

In truth, there are two sides to this issue. On the one hand, you may come across as a less threatening person now that you have serious physical limitations. On the other hand, the Illinois Board is often more sympathetic to people who genuinely need a pardon so that they can get a better job–and people on disability do not typically have to worry about that challenge.

That said,  your health is just one of many issues that may be relevant to a pardon petition.  If you can show how well you have reformed and that your criminal conviction is holding you back in some other way, the Board, and ultimately the Governor, may be willing to grant your petition.

If you have questions about the process of applying for a pardon, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

The answer is probably yes– if the officer has obtained prior approval from the state.

Under 720 ILCS 5/14-5, any evidence obtained in violation of the Illinois eavesdropping statute is not admissible in any civil or criminal trial.   

The eavesdropping statute also bars using any information which you know or reasonably should have known was obtained in violation of law from a private conversation or private electronic communication, unless you have consent from all parties. See 720 ILCS 5/14-2.           

The state may approve the eavesdropping but the approval must meet the requirements of 720 ILCS 5/14-3(q).  The state may grant approval only after determining that reasonable cause exists to believe that inculpatory conversations concerning a qualified offense will occur with a specified individual(s) within a designated time.  

If you have been charged with a criminal offense, contact an experienced criminal law attorney immediately. An attorney can review your case for its best possible defense.  Did the police act lawfully in collecting the evidence against you?  Can the state prove all the elements of your offense beyond a reasonable doubt?  Even if the search is legal and the evidence against you is overwhelming, an attorney who is respected in the courthouse may be able to negotiate a more favorable plea agreement than you could on your own.

  If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.        

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

            The answer is yes. 

If you take innocent images of real children–even those you did not create yourself–and convert them into something sexual, you can be charged with child pornography. However, there is an exception if you used entirely virtual children, in other words, if you did not depict an actual child.

            For example, in People v. McKown, the defendant had created a collage of actual children’s pictures cut from parenting magazines and combined them in a sexually explicit manner with images of male sex organs.  The defendant argued that his collages were not a record of actual sex acts, and that no children were harmed.  Further, criminalizing his collages violated the first amendment. The court disagreed stating that the purpose of the child pornography law was to prevent the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and that such images were harmful to the child’s reputation and emotional well being. Furthermore, the First Amendment does not protect child pornography.

            If you have been charged with child pornography or a similar offense, contact an experienced criminal law attorney immediately.  An attorney can review your case for its best possible defense.  Was the search that uncovered your images lawful?  If not, an attorney can petition the court to suppress the results of the search?  Can the state prove all the elements of your offense beyond a reasonable doubt?  Are the images truly pornographic?  Be aware that different judges may see the same facts differently.  An attorney who is familiar with the opinions of  your particular judge may be able to more effectively present your defense.

            If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

See also the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision reviewing the above case in People v. McKown.   

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

The short answer is no. The state’s objection may hurt your case but is not necessarily fatal.

When you file a petition for a pardon or commutation, you must send a copy of the petition to the state’s attorney for the county where your case was held.  Most counties have one or more attorneys who evaluate these petitions.  The state’s attorney will generally assess the gravity of your original offense as well as how closely your version of events matches up with police reports. The state may also consult the victim(s) or their survivors.  While these parties do not have total veto power, the state tends to listen carefully to what they have to say.

Bear in mind that different counties may view different offenses differently. Hence, the exact same facts that leads to an objection in one county may be disregarded by the state’s attorney in another.

Even if the state objects, the Prisoner Review Board, who hears your petition, makes their initial recommendation to the governor who then makes the final decision.  Therefore, it is advisable to have an attorney’s help to present your case in its most favorable light.

 If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

            The Constitution requires that once you invoke your right to remain silent, all police questioning must stop.  But did you invoke that right?  That may depend on what you said or how you said it.

            As an attorney, I always advise clients  to tell police “I wish to invoke my right to remain silent.  I wish to speak with a lawyer.”  However, even if you did not say the magic words, your response may still be enough to end police questioning as long as what you said or did was clear and unequivocal. 

            Courts have found the following sufficient to invoke the right to remain silent:

• Answering “no, not no more'” when the defendant was asked whether after  understanding his Miranda rights, he wished to talk to police.

• The defendant told detectives at least 45 minutes into his interrogation: “I don’t wanna answer no more questions, ’cause I can’t help you. And I don’t wanna dig myself into a hole.”

• Where defendant said: “I ain’t got nothin’ else to say” at 1:41 a.m., “got nothin’ to say” at 4:03 a.m., and “don’t want to say nothing else about it” at 7:17 a.m.

• Where defendant placed his hands over his ears and chanted “nah nah nah,” and the officers interpreted the defendant’s conduct as an expression of his desire to terminate the interview.

• Where defendant told police he “had nothing to say.”

Courts have found the following did not invoke the right to silence:

• Where police asked, “so anyway have you got enough?” and defendant answered, “yes, I guess that would be it…. I think you got enough, you got the story now.” The supreme court concluded that rather than attempting to terminate the questioning altogether, the defendant merely resisted answering questions concerning particular details of an offense to which he had confessed.

• Where police asked: “Are you done talking to me? Are you done talking to all of us?”  and the defendant answered “yeah.” The court explained it was unclear from the defendant’s response whether he wished to invoke his constitutional right or whether he had nothing else to tell detectives.

If police violated your right to remain silent, your attorney may petition the court to suppress any resulting statements that you made. Bear in mind that different judges may see the facts of your case very differently. Therefore, it is important to hire an attorney familiar with your courthouse who can present your situation in its most favorable light.

            If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

Reference:  People v. Ward

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)

            Under Illinois law, you can be charged with drug-induced homicide if you illegally delivered a controlled substance to someone and that substance then caused their death.   See 720 ILCS 5/9-3.3.

But what if someone else was also responsible for the death? Such as a victim or another party?  What if the drugs you supplied were not the only reason the victim died.  Is that a defense?

            Unfortunately, to convict you, the state need only show that the drugs you provided were a contributing cause of the death.  For example, in People v. Nere , the defendant sold heroin to the victim who died shortly thereafter.  A medical expert determined that the victim had died from an overdose of both heroin and cocaine. Because defendant’s heroin had contributed to the death, the defendant was still convicted of drug-induced homicide.

            If you are charged with drug-induced homicide, contact an experienced criminal law attorney immediately.  An attorney can review your case for its best possible defense.  As with most offenses, the state must prove all the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.  Can the state prove that you “delivered” the drugs or that your drugs caused the victim’s death in any way?  Did you deliver the drugs unlawfully?  What if you and the victim equally possessed the drugs?  Even if the state has the evidence needed to convict you, an attorney who is respected in the courthouse may be able to negotiate a more favorable plea agreement than you could on your own.

If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.

(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)