It was a night, wrapped in a nightmare, that the people of Clinton, Illinois will never forget. The evening of September 3, 2003 ended as it had begun: a quiet end-of-summer day, marked by the start of a new school year and weather warm enough to lure kids and their families outdoors. The children of
Over my four decades as a journalist, I spent countless days and some late nights waiting for juries to return their verdicts. If the vigil held all the excitement of a dripping faucet for me, I could only imagine the tedious nature of the deliberations. My assumption of what jurors experienced changed over the years
Dr. Sarah Bonner and the Heyworth school district went their separate ways last month after she became the target of a social media frenzy over a book in her eighth grade English classroom. The book is titled "This Book Is Gay" and explores topics teens encounter as they navigate the road to adulthood: dating, sex
Monkey stories have made headlines recently with tales of monkeys disappearing from the zoo and a new Stephen Colbert segment on “Monkey Mysteries.” But left unexamined is the story of “a good little monkey” known by generations of young readers as Curious George. My youngest grandson is a big fan of the curious little monkey.
Illinois was set to become the first state to eliminate any form of cash bail as a requirement for pre-trial release when the Illinois Supreme Court hit the pause button on New Year's Eve. The decision to delay implementation of the law follows a ruling several days earlier by a Kanakee County judge deeming the
Rare is the judge willing to stand before an audience and discuss his views on politically sensitive Supreme Court rulings, controversial bond reform measures and the harm done by long prison sentences. Fourth District Appellate Judge James Knecht talked about those topics and more on Tuesday night during a speech sponsored by the Central Illinois
Brandon P. Fleming is founder of the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, nationally recognized for its success in introducing minority students to the Ivy League institution’s debate team. He should not be where he is today. In his recently published memoir Miseducated, Fleming shares all the reasons for his unlikely success, beginning with an abusive
It was a long three weeks of trial and an even longer three days waiting for a jury to return its decision in the People of Wisconsin v Kyle Rittenhouse. On Friday afternoon, the waiting was over. The panel unanimously agreed that the 18-year-old is not guilty of murder in the shooting deaths of two
Bart McNeil was in prison a dozen years when a newspaper clipping that renewed hope for his exoneration arrived in the mail. With decades yet to go on his 100-year sentence in the murder of his 3-year-old daughter Christina, hope was a dim light at the end of a dark tunnel. From the day he
There are some developments in criminal cases that leave you shaking your head. Things that fall under the You Can't Make This Stuff Up category. This week, a judge ordered the state to turn over about 8,000 pages of police reports to lawyers for Jamie Snow, who has been challenging his murder conviction since he
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