For weeks now, I’ve been working on behalf of Eileen O’Neill Burke for Cook County State’s Attorney, and I wanted to share more broadly my thinking on this important race.
I was a 2-time voter and supporter of Kim Foxx, our current Cook County State’s Attorney, and I think she has done a great job. I have enormous respect for Foxx and whoever wins tonight is going to build on her legacy.
Eileen O’Neill Burke is far and above the more qualified candidate to replace Kim Foxx and is superior to the Democratic alternative, Clayton Harris III.
O’Neill Burke was devoted her career to the justice system– Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney for ten years and then worked as a criminal defense attorney. She has gone through the fires as a judge– elected first to the Circuit Court of Cook County then as a Justice of the First District Appellate Court in Cook County. In every role, she has served with honor and competence.
Harris is an academic and a lobbyist. O’Neill Burke was made for this.
She wants to bring that competence to a State’s Attorney office that is under significant stress. SL and I attended a talk she gave last month and I was impressed with her approach– no-nonsense capacity building and robust engagement.
- Wants to create a tickler system for case status so that families of defendants and victims of crime can know what is going on
- looking to deploy paralegals to review video– there is so much video of crime but usually at 6 hours per tape and they only need 30 seconds (obvious use case for AI)
- Wants to leverage the network of “3,000 States Attorney alums” who are ready to help out
- She wants to get former judges to build out the education system inside the office so as to level up the lawyers
- Reinstate felony murder policy– if you drive someone to kill somebody, you will be charged with felony murder
- Says she will call out judges who are not performing
- Reopen the 711 program for law students to help out in the office
- Good trusting relationship with all aspects of the justice system in order to achieve common objectives
Add this brass tacks approach to her position on Restorative Justice, and I am sold. Here’s from her website:
Eileen knows we’ll never get crime under control without addressing its root causes—poverty, historic disinvestment in neighborhoods, and a revolving door of kids getting involved in crime early and getting stuck.
That’s why she’ll recruit a brand-new type of State’s Attorney in a newly fashioned Restorative Justice Bureau. That’s where juvenile, veterans, drug and mental health courts will work with government agencies to get people help, let them cross pollinate with various social service agencies and bring people back to society instead of being stuck in a life of crime.
I am convinced that Eileen O’Neill Burke is the person we need in this office right now.
Also: Bring Chicago Home, yo!