McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally | McHenry County State’s Attorney Office
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally | McHenry County State’s Attorney Office
Nearly half of the state’s attorneys throughout Illinois have come together in a lawsuit seeing to rule the soon-to-be instituted Safe- T Act.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally filed the lawsuit on behalf of 50 state’s attorneys.
“To many in law enforcement, this was a political ambush,” Kenneally told WTTW. “All of a sudden at the 11th hour in lame duck session (in January 2021), they sprung this thing. They strong-armed and excluded prosecutors, as well as police, as well as other people involved in the criminal justice system from any type of negotiations. They forced this thing through and now we’re left with the fallout.”
Attorney General Kwame Raoul of Illinois and Gov. J.B. Pritzker were named in the complaint by Kenneally, which was filed in the 22nd Judicial Court. He points out that the law is unconstitutional.
He asserted that HB 3653 poses a risk to public safety.
“For reasons stated in the complaint filed today by the McHenry County State’s Office, HB 3653 is unconstitutional, creates a bail system that is wildly out of step with the expectations citizens and victims have for their justice system and is a clear and present threat to public safety," Kenneally said.
Thousands of criminals who are now being imprisoned in state prisons while they await trial for major crimes will be released when the Safe-T Act goes into effect on January 1, 2023.
If the Safe-T Act is carried out as intended, those accused of the most horrific crimes, such as robbery, kidnapping, arson, second-degree murder, intimidation, aggravated battery, aggravated DUI, aggravated flight, drug-related homicide, and threatening a public officer, will be freed.
100 out of the 102 state attorneys concurred that the statute needs to be amended or eliminated.
Eric Rinehart from Lake County and Kim Foxx from Cook County are the only two extreme outliers.
Both campaigns acquired funding as a result of a concerted push to appoint "activist" prosecutors who are more likely to support the release of suspects.
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