Full Text of HJR0055 102nd General Assembly
HJ0055 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois is in great need of a state | 3 | | conviction integrity unit, run by the Attorney General's | 4 | | Office, to identify and overturn wrongful convictions, and to | 5 | | set free those falsely imprisoned; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, A conviction integrity unit investigates claims | 7 | | of innocence to determine whether new evidence gives rise to a | 8 | | substantial probability that the convicted defendant was not | 9 | | the person who committed the offense of conviction; a | 10 | | conviction integrity unit can also make recommendations about | 11 | | the appropriate remedy, if any, that should result from its | 12 | | findings; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, The Attorney General's Office is best positioned | 14 | | to run a conviction integrity unit because its resources far | 15 | | exceed those of local prosecutors; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, According to the National Registry of | 17 | | Exonerations, 78 prosecutors and attorneys general have | 18 | | created conviction integrity or review units in the past | 19 | | decade; 461 people have been freed due in part to work by these | 20 | | prosecutors; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Attorneys general in Washington D.C. and in eight |
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| 1 | | states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, | 2 | | New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, have | 3 | | launched conviction review units; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, Since 2018, the Philadelphia District Attorney's | 5 | | Office, under Larry Krasner, has exonerated 17 people wrongly | 6 | | convicted of murder; Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby | 7 | | has cleared 10 people serving murder or attempted murder | 8 | | sentences since 2016; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, A convictions integrity unit will aid in | 10 | | achieving and ensuring justice by investigating claims of | 11 | | innocence, remedying identified wrongful convictions, and | 12 | | providing proactive support and recommendations to the | 13 | | Attorney General's Office; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, Conviction integrity units can assist in | 15 | | addressing racial inequity in the criminal justice system and | 16 | | mass incarceration; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois' goal should be for justice | 18 | | and truth instead of preserving convictions in defiance of | 19 | | logic, facts, or new evidence; to wrongly convict a person is | 20 | | to deny them untold opportunities and the chance to live their | 21 | | life in freedom; therefore, be it
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 2 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE | 3 | | SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the Office of the | 4 | | Attorney General to establish a task force to examine the | 5 | | creation of a statewide conviction integrity unit within its | 6 | | office; and be it further
| 7 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 8 | | delivered to Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Governor JB | 9 | | Pritzker.
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