Crazy headline right? Well, it happened and we’ll get into the sequence of events as reported by ABC 7 of Chicago this morning.
Kim Foxx, the State Attorney who inexplicably let Jussie Smollett of the hook without even having to admit guilt, apparently has quite a history of ridiculous decisions and one involves the murder of a 16 year old in 2009.
ABC 7 gives the details, which revolve around the killing of Dorrian Albert by gang members.
But one teen – known then as “D.J.” – was 14 at the time. Prosecutors say he punched Albert and knocked him down, saying that he signed “his death certificate.”
Prosecutors decided to charge him as a juvenile in a special kind of case called an Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile prosecution or EJJ.
That means although “D.J.” was convicted as a juvenile – he was also sentenced to 30 years as an adult on the underlying offense of murder. However, that sentence would be stayed and not enforced unless he was convicted of a new felony after being released from juvenile custody.
In short, D.J. was indeed convicted of the murder of 16 year old Derrion Albert. Yet, because he was charged as juvenile with EJJ exemptions, his 30 year sentence was stayed.
The trigger to reinstate that sentence? Any felony conviction.
Surprise, D.J. ended up with one of those in 2016.
In 2015, 14-year-old “D.J.” was now 20 year old Dionte Johnson – out of juvenile prison – arrested and charged with felony aggravated fleeing after a Chicago police chase. Court records obtained by the I-Team show prosecutors filed notice that they were “seeking to revoke stay of his adult sentence.”
“They said that because he got in trouble now we were going to get the 30 years,” Anjanette Albert said.
The family of Derrion Albert were finally going to get some justice. They had done things the right way, accepting the initial stayed prison sentence with the promise from the State Attorney’s office that they would follow through if Dionte Johnson (D.J.) ever got in trouble again.
Then Kim Foxx got elected and everything changed.
Johnson was convicted of the felony on November 8, 2016, Election Day. The same day that Foxx, who supervised the Albert case convictions, won the state’s attorney’s race. Soon after, the Albert family says they were called to a meeting at the juvenile court building.
“They call us down there and tell us that the state’s attorney decided to not pursue the motion,” said Norman Golliday, Derrion’s grandfather.
Anjanette Albert said they told them that, “Kim Foxx decided not to go any further with this to just, it’s over. She’s going to drop it and he’s going to get out and there was nothing that we could do.”
I can’t imagine how frustrating the family of Derrion must have felt at that point. Kim Foxx broke the initial conviction terms and simply asked for probation for Johnson. Not even a day of jail time.
Mr. Albert explained how betrayed he felt and how Kim Foxx lied to his face.
“I felt like she sat in our face, she cried with us, she hugged us and then you turn around and let this murderer, I don’t care how old he is, he was convicted of first degree murder. My son is not here anymore and she gave us all this hope and she promised us that this was going to be OK. And it didn’t turn out like that,” Albert told the I-Team.
ABC 7 requested and got a comment from Foxx’s office. This is what they said.
On Monday morning, the I-Team asked State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to do an interview or give us a statement in response to our reporting. Late Tuesday, a spokesman for Foxx sent the following statement: “Based on the Class 4 Felony, which carries a sentencing range of probation or up to three years in prison, it was not in the interest of justice to pursue a 30 year prison sentence in this case.” The spokesman said they had no personal knowledge of the Albert family asking to meet with State’s Attorney Foxx.
What a callous response. That was not the terms Foxx’s office agreed to, nor was it what was told to Dorrian’s parents. Just as she’s done multiple times, Foxx snapped her fingers and changed the deal to something that makes no logical sense.
Her office broke their word, broke the court agreement, and refused to take action to reinstate Johnson’s sentence. Yet, all they have to say is that it was “not in the interest” of justice to send him back to jail. How incredibly insulting to a family that lost their 16 year old son. That’s not justice, it’s pure corruption.
Being a prosecutor is not about “reforming the criminal justice system” or fighting for social change. It’s about prosecuting crimes under the laws as currently written to the full extent possible. Foxx is clearly a political actor. She’s heavily connected with Rainbow Push, Jesse Jackson’s scam of an organization. She has no care for actually doing her job and it’s almost as if she’s trying to fill a quota of ridiculous, lenient decisions in order to please certain politically connected figures.
This women needs to go.
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