Cook County prosecutors’ new effort to reduce sentences for some longtime inmates will have an uphill climb before some judges, if its first week in court is any indication.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx during a news conference on March 15, 2022. Her office is reviewing cases for resentencing of people who have served at least 10 years for a drug, theft, robbery or burglary conviction; people 65 or older who have served at least 20 years for a case not related to a sex crime or homicide; and people who have served at least 15 years for a case other than a sex crime or homicide and who were younger than 21 when they committed the offense.
On the bench Thursday, Sacks insisted that he had not yet made any decisions about whether Miles deserved a new sentence and said he would not weigh in on the statute’s constitutionality. The effort is also a “re-entry initiative,” Adduci said in court. Prosecutors have identified people who could help them understand the challenges they face upon release from prison; Miles has agreed to collaborate in that effort, and prosecutors have petitioned for his resentencing in part as an incentive for that cooperation, she said.
Sacks set a hearing date for early May. If Miles is not resentenced, he is slated for release next year. Overall, Foxx’s office has said, some lengthy prison terms are relics of an outdated lock-’em-up philosophy, and the new law lets prosecutors use their significant power to try to remedy that. “We started with a much larger group once we set the criteria and landed on these two cases,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We recognize that two is small, but we want to be positioned to do this right. As of right now we are focused on these two cases.”
The resentencing initiative is not without criticism from within Foxx’s office. Some current and former Cook County prosecutors told the Tribune they were concerned about whether it is a wise use of resources for overworked staff. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office traditionally relied on very limited information to make parole recommendations, according to a statement from Foxx’s office, whereas prosecutors considering eligibility for the resentencing initiative are conducting extensive research. The Prisoner Review Board is best-suited to make parole decisions, the office said.
Sheila Bedi, a professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and director of its Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, disagreed strenuously. Resentencing is squarely within the province of judges, she said, and criticism of the new law needs to be put in context of the political backlash to criminal-justice reforms.
Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow last month asked a judge to throw out Corzell Cole’s first-degree murder conviction in a 2002 homicide, and instead allow him to plead to second-degree murder and get a new sentence that would allow for his speedy release., Will County prosecutors cited the new resentencing law in their request.
The right move would be to restore a broader parole system in Illinois, Greenberg said, calling the resentencing initiative merely “a Band-Aid for a system that doesn’t work.”Larry Frazier, 65, is the subject of Cook County prosecutors’ first request for resentencing. He has been in custody for nearly 27 years - longer than some full sentences for first-degree murder — on convictions for a home invasion and residential burglary.
Frazier was sentenced to 60 years, double the usual maximum, since the victim was older than 60. At sentencing, the judge noted that he had a lengthy criminal background including multiple robbery convictions, and he committed the Calumet City home invasion less than two weeks after being released from prison.
The adult victim in the residential burglary case spoke to the Tribune this week on condition that she be identified by her initials, S.C., to protect her privacy. She is not planning to appear in court for any new hearings, she said.
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