Quinn Grants 50 Pardons

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is continuing to work on the mountain of clemency petitions he inherited from former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  When Quinn took office he inherited over 2,500 petitions that were sitting on his desk.  Since he took office, Quinn has acted on 1,356 clemency petitions.  He has granted   clemency 517 times and granted 506 pardons while denying 839 requests.  He has authorized 10 people who he granted pardons for to seek expungement of their records and granted one commutation.  In addition, earlier this year the State of Illinois abolished the death penalty which resulted in him commuting the death sentences of 15 inmates sentenced to death to life in prison.  On Friday, Quinn granted 50 pardons while denying 111.  The cases that he acted on Friday were filed between 2003 and 2009.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.  

1410 or 410 Probation - A Primer

As a continuing service to our readers, we are presenting our first  article in our "Primer" series

I frequently get calls from clients inquiring about different options for avoiding a felony conviction for a drug case.  An often misunderstood type of first time felony drug offender probation that allows defendants to avoid having a felony conviction is commonly known as 1410 or 410 Probation.  Here's how it works.  When you are sentenced to 1410 or 410 Probation, you plead guilty to the drug offense at the time of sentencing.  A Motion to Vacate your plea is entered and continued until the termination date.  Once you successfully complete your probation, your conviction is vacated, as if it never happened.  So, when someone runs your criminal record, it doesn't show a conviction.  However, a record of your arrest, and the court files and records will remain.  A background search will turn up those records and an employer may not hire you once they find out that you were once charged with a felony drug case.  The only way to remove the court records and the arrest record is to expunge or seal your records.  You can expunge the case 5 years after you complete your 1410 or 410 Probation.  The law does allow you to seal your case 4 years after completion of your 1410 or 410 probation.  However, expungement is much more thorough then sealing and sealing takes much longer than expungement so you are better off waiting for the expungement.  1410 or 410 Probation is a great alternative for first time drug offenders which allows them to avoid having a felony drug conviction on their record which will follow them around the rest of their lives.  Of course, in order to expunge or seal you must not catch any other cases after you completed your 1410 or 410 probation.

On a side note, 1410 or 410 probation may not preclude an alien from being deported by Immigration.  There is at least one case from this jurisdiction, Gill v. Ashcroft, 2003, which held that a sentence of 1410 or 410 probation is considered a conviction under immigration law.  Other jurisdictions have held differently and this issue may very well make its way to the United States Supreme Court.  But the point is that practitioners need to be aware of the potential immigration consequences of a sentence of 1410 or 410 probation.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

FBI May Be Tracking You Through Your Cell Phone

A case pending before the Federal Court of Appeals in Philadelphia is spotlighting the issue of how easy it is for the FBI to track our location through our cell phones.  The case involves an FBI agent who admitted that  he obtained cell phone records on 150 occasions to track the locations of federal fugitives.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU have filed a lawsuit claiming that this raises serious privacy concerns.  On Thursday the Court of Appeals in Philadelphia heard oral arguments on the matter.  People need to understand that cell phones have evolved into pocket-sized computers that allow cell phone operators to be able to pinpoint your location to as little as 150 feet to be able to connect you to the nearest cell phone tower.  In addition, the federal government has required that all cell phone operators provide E911 service that allows emergency response units to know where you are when 911 is called from your phone.  While the ability to find your location may help provide you with the best service and allow emergency personnel to locate you in case of an emergency, it opens to door to serious privacy concerns which need to be addressed by our courts.  Whenever you place a phone call from your cell phone, the location information is stored somewhere by your carrier and can be retrieved later on.  The current laws are outdated and this issue needs to be addressed by our government.

This also raises another issue that I would like to bring to the attention of our readers.  It involves expungement and how it relates to what the federal government knows and how it affects any potential questioning with the federal government.  If you are able to have your state criminal case expunged, there is no guarantee that your record has been expunged from the federal government's records.  A state court judge has no legal authority to order the FBI or Immigration and Naturalization to remove something from their records.  I received a phone call from a potential client this morning who informed me that he has applied for job with the federal government and wanted to know whether he should reveal an arrest for a local offense which was expunged many years ago.  I informed him that there's no way of knowing if the arrest is in some federal database and that the best policy is to answer their questions truthfully if this comes up.  We frequently run into the same issue with clients who have interviews with INS on immigration issues and the question is asked about a crime in which the client was able to have the matter expunged.  The best advice is to answer the question truthfully and assume that the federal government knows about the arrest even though it was expunged at the state level.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Expungement Problems Persist

On December 10, 2008 we posted a blog about how the Illinois State Police have been refusing to enforce expungement orders issued by Judges. In January of this year, the Illinois State Police entered into a settlement with Cook County Chief Judge Paul Biebel and agreed to abandon this practice and to file any objections with the court and allow the judge to decide whether to grant the petition. You would think that this would put an end to this issue but it hasn't. About 1,800 orders issued between 2006 and 2008 have not been enforced. 900 orders issued between 1991 and 2006 have not been enforced and 5% of the orders issued in 2008 have not been enforced. There has been no agreement as to how to deal with those outstanding orders and class action lawsuits are now being threatened.

We direct you to read this excellent article from The Chicago Reporter which discusses this issue in great detail.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Expungement Orders Ignored By State Police

The Illinois State Police have been ignoring Court Orders directing them to expunge criminal records. This practice seems to be limited to court orders coming out of the Markham Courthouse in Cook County. These court orders have been complied with by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and the arresting police agencies, but not the Illinois State Police. Approximately 281 expungement orders issued by the Chief Judge at Markham have not been complied with by the Illinois State Police. Once the expungement order is entered, the defendant, or their attorney, forwards the Order to the Illinois State Police. In 281 of those cases, the Illinois State Police has mailed a letter back to the defendant, or their attorney, informing them that their case could not be expunged. At least one Petition has been filed in Markham seeking to hold the Illinois State Police in contempt of court for failing to comply with a court order. In response, the Illinois State Police agreed to comply with 137 expungement orders but refused to comply with another 144. The petition to hold the Illinois State Police in contempt of court has since been voluntarily dismissed while the defendant in the case and the Illinois State Police try to negotiate a settlement of this issue.

Once again, this practice of ignoring expungement orders appears to be limited to expungement orders coming out of the Markham courthouse.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense lawyers at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.