The court ruled Thursday that special prosecutor Dan Webb and his team had no standing to charge the former “Empire” star after Foxx and her office initially resolved the case through an agreement which saw Smollett forfeit the $10,000 he paid in bond and complete 16 hours of community service.

To gain insight into the impact of prison closures, WTTW News looked back on the last prison the state shut down: Dwight Correctional Center. We spoke to both currently and formerly incarcerated women and correctional workers, as well as researchers and lifelong residents in the surrounding village.

For the first time, a convicted felon is set to occupy the White House. There’s no constitutional prohibition against someone with a felony record running for or serving as president of the United States. But in Illinois, anyone with a felony conviction is barred from holding local elected office.

The Chicago City Council voted to pay $4 million to the family of a man who spent 33 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murdering a woman in 1989 in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

The City Council will also weigh paying $325,000 to resolve a separate lawsuit filed by a man who was shot and wounded by a Chicago Police officer in March 2018 while suffering a mental health crisis.

In all, Chicago taxpayers spent $201.8 million to resolve 43 lawsuits brought by more than three dozen people wrongfully convicted based on evidence gathered by the Chicago Police Department since 2019, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

In 2008, Marcel Brown was arrested for murder at the age of 18. He spent a decade in prison before being exonerated. A federal jury awarded him a record-setting $50 million when he sued the city over his wrongful conviction.

During the past eight years, city officials have paid at least $11.2 million to hire private attorneys to defend former Sgt. Ronald Watts and the officers he supervised, despite his criminal conviction and the hundreds of people he helped convict who have been exonerated.

During the first six months of 2024, Chicago taxpayers paid $40.5 million to resolve lawsuits alleging police officers committed misconduct, records show.

In all, Chicago taxpayers spent $197.8 million to resolve 42 lawsuits brought by more than three dozen people wrongfully convicted based on evidence gathered by the Chicago Police Department between Jan. 1, 2019, and April 30, 2024, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

Anthony Gay spent more than 20 years in solitary confinement. He also became an advocate against the practice. He had just been granted compassionate medical release from federal custody, just days before his 51st birthday. He died of lung and liver cancer.

A former Cook County prosecutor and two Chicago police officers are facing felony charges alleging they fraudulently collected more than $100,000 in overtime pay.

The system should document red flags of prospective officers for law enforcement employers, civil rights attorney BenjaminCrump said, to ensure the safety of citizens. He said he intends to lobby for the passage of federal legislation, such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

In a call, Sonya Massey’s mother, Donna Massey, reports that her daughter is suffering a “mental breakdown” and tells the dispatcher, “I don’t want you guys to hurt her.” She adds that she fears the police and asks that no officer who is “prejudiced” be sent.

The lawsuit filed by John Velez, who spent 17 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of 26-year-old Anthony Hueneca in Little Village was overturned, is set for trial for July 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Edmond Chang ruled Tuesday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and civil rights attorney Ben Crump joined the family of Sonya Massey in West Garfield Park on Tuesday, demanding justice for the woman who was shot and killed by police in her Springfield home earlier this month.