Police will be forbidden from using deceptive tactics while interrogating minors under a measure Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Thursday that made Illinois the first state in the nation to ban the practice.
The bill was one of several Pritzker signed in a morning ceremony that, together with a sweeping piece of legislation he approved earlier this year that includes the eventual elimination of cash bail, represent a major overhaul of the criminal justice system in Illinois under his watch.
Advocates of the new law dealing with how police interrogate minors say lying or using other deceptive actions while questioning a young person can lead to false confessions and ultimately wrongful convictions.
Terrill Swift, who spent 15 years in prison after falsely confessing to a 1994 rape and murder, says that’s what happened to him. DNA evidence later tied the crime to a previously convicted murderer and sex offender.
“We can all agree that one day in prison wrongfully is too long,” Swift, one of the “Englewood Four” teens who were wrongly convicted of the crime, said during a bill signing at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, bars police from knowingly providing false information about evidence or making unauthorized statements about leniency while questioning those 17 and younger. Any confession made under those circumstances will be inadmissible in court unless prosecutors can prove “by a preponderance of the evidence that the confession was voluntarily given.”
“My deep hope is that Illinois is setting an example for the entire nation to pass this law in all 50 states,” Pritzker said.
The issue of minors being deceived into giving false confessions isn’t merely hypothetical, said Laura Nirider, co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern’s law school.
“In Illinois alone, we know of 100 wrongful convictions that have been based on false confessions. And in 31 of those cases, the person who falsely confessed was a child,” Nirider said. “Many children who falsely confess do so because they are told downright falsehoods during interrogation, statements like, ‘Your DNA was found at the scene,’ or, ‘If you confess, you’ll get to go home.’ “
The governor also signed measures Thursday that prevent statements made during restorative justice practices from being used in court; allow state prosecutors to petition courts for lighter sentences for people convicted in their counties “if the original sentence no longer advances the interests of justice”; and create a task force to study ways to reduce the state’s prison population through resentencing.
These are the latest changes to the criminal justice system under Pritzker, who earlier this year signed sweeping legislation from the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus that will abolish cash bail beginning in 2023 and require universal police body cameras by 2025, among other changes.
The governor’s efforts are occurring against the backdrop of a level of violence in Chicago and other cities that remains elevated after surging last year along with the coronavirus pandemic. Pritzker broached the subject with President Joe Biden on Wednesday during an Oval Office visit ahead of a bipartisan meeting on the president’s infrastructure plan.
The issue has become a rallying point for Republicans, in Illinois and nationally, heading into next year’s elections.
Despite co-sponsoring the measure barring deceptive interrogation practices — which passed both chambers of the General Assembly without opposition — House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs held his own news conference Thursday to excoriate Pritzker and other Democrats for their larger efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system.
“Violent crime in Chicago is no longer a local problem,” Durkin said. “It is a state of Illinois problem.
“When you demoralize the men and women who wear the badge, it sends a message that makes it to the streets, and it is reflected in the surge of violence and the staggering number of criminal acts that we see day in and day out,” he said.
Concerns about violence and debates about the causes also cut across party lines and have created tension among some of the state’s top Democratic officials, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her police superintendent frequently pointing a share of the blame at bond reform efforts led by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
Pritzker and other officials rallied around Foxx at Thursday’s event, with the governor calling the prosecutor “a tireless champion for equity in our justice system who has long fought to undo the damage done by systemic racism.”
While some critics see those changes as undermining efforts to curb violent crime, Pritzker said they are part of an effort to address the root causes of violence.
“Too many people in the city and across the state have experienced gun violence and have lost someone that they love or had someone injured or they themselves have been injured,” Pritzker said. “And it is incumbent upon elected officials to act to make sure that we are not only addressing it directly in the time period in which these challenges occur but also ahead of time, to make sure that we’re attacking the underlying causes of violence.”
One of those underlying causes, Foxx said, is a lack of trust in the criminal justice system, which is perpetuated by the kind of tactics that now will be illegal in Illinois.
“What is required in this moment, while there is blood teeming in our streets, is for us to come together to work with our partners, not just in law enforcement but in the community,” Foxx said. “(That’s) why these bills today matter, so that the people in those neighborhoods who want to see their communities safe will pick up the phone and call the police and know that they’re going to get a response and a justice system that will treat them fairly.”
Responding to the latest criticisms from Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, Foxx said that “while I respect the superintendent has an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult circumstances, my commitment is to the people of Cook County to have a fair and just criminal justice system where the Constitution prevails, not emotion.”
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
