The big case you haven’t heard of because Kim Foxx did the right thing
“A couple of months ago,” said Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, “we had a quadruple homicide that we’d charged under this administration where, aswewere continuing to build the case and preparing for trial, it became clear that the (witnesses’) identificationwere wrong, and, in fact, additional evidence was put together wherewe could identity thatwe had the wrong person.”
Foxxwent on, “and itwasmy obligation — an ethical obligation that I had— to say, ‘We cannot continue in that case.’ ”
Wait, what? The contextwas Foxx’s recent appearance via teleconference before the Tribune Editorial Board, and her reference didn’t ring a bell. A quadruple homicide case fell apart and I’d missed it?
The conversationmoved on, and I later followed up with Foxx’s office and defense attorneys on what I learnedwas theMauriceHarris case.
Harris has come up in two stories in major local newspapers in the last two years, compared with more than 800 stories that have referenced TV actor Jussie Smollett. The charges against Smollett are minor— falsely telling police hewas the victim of a hate crime— but Foxx’s conduct related to those charges has become a major issue in her reelection campaign against Republican challenger Pat O’Brien.
And, fair enough. Her shifty, opaque handling of that case gives rise to legitimate questions about her judgment for voters to consider.
But it’s also fair to consider her oversight in the case againstHarris, againstwhom the chargeswere horrific: Police said on the afternoon ofMarch 30, Harris, 19, bent on avenging the slaying of his father in a street shooting the night before, emerged froma vacant lot by theNadia Fish& Chicken restaurant in South Shore and began firing a semi-automatic handgun at four men standing outside.
Killed in the hail of bulletswere Emmanuel Stokes, 28, EdwinDavis, 32, Dillon Jackson, 20, and his brother Raheem Jackson, 19, none ofwhom have been linked to the killing ofHarris’ father. Three witnesses at the restaurant identified the shooter asHarris, a known gang member with an extensive juvenile record, and police arrested him several days later. The case against him looked solid.
Quadruple homicides are rare, but retalia
tory gang killings are depressingly common. Coverage of the slaughter atNadia Fish& Chickenwas part of the coverage of seven murders that day in a neighborhood known informally asTerrorTown, and it faded into all the news stories of the hundreds of, dare I say, everyday murders in Chicago. Did you remember it? I obviously didn’t.
Then, quietly, out of the public eye, the case againstHarris began to fall apart. The testimony of the eyewitnesses got shakier and shakier. “BeforeMauricewas even arrested therewere rumors all over the neighborhood that he’d done it,” said Ian Barney, one ofHarris’ defense attorneys. “The identifications seemed to be based more on that than actual memories.”
They began recanting or declining to cooperate with prosecutors. One of the alleged witnesses recanted in a recorded jailhouse telephone call with a third party, when investigators knew she had no reason to lie when she said she knew the killer was someone else.
Barney said a snippet of surveillance video fromthe scene showed the killer running away in away thatHarris, who he said limps froma gunshotwound suffered in his early teens, could not have run. And that information fromfederal prosecutors
conducting a larger investigationwas suggesting thatHarriswas not involved, as he continually maintained. Fingerprint and cellphone evidence also pointed away from Harris.
Still. Itwas the kind of case that could have gone to trial, the kind of case where a different breed of prosecutor might say, well, let the jury sort this out. Harris is far fromamodel citizen— along with his extensive juvenile record he racked up dozens of disciplinary citations while being held in Cook County Jail, according to the sheriff’s office, including criminal charges for mob action (fighting) and public indecency (openly masturbating in front of corrections personnel)— so let’s throwthe book and see if it hits him.
Itwas also the kind of case that could have turnedHarris into a cause celebre and resulted in a massive civil judgment in his favor.
But it didn’t go to trial. “The prosecutors in our casewere receptive towhat our investigatorswere turning up, and they did everything in their power to get the right result,” said Barney.
“After a thorough investigation … we made the determination that itwas not in the interest of justice to proceed with the prosecution againstMauriceHarris,” said Assistant State’s Attorney PatrickWaller to Judge Vincent Gaughan on June 17, citing “information fromour federal partners” about an ongoing investigation that involves the quadruple homicide.
“Iwant to compliment you and the State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for doing the other part of the mandates that the prosecutors should do,” said the judge.
In a statement, Foxx’s office said she has similarly “dropped about 25 murder cases after reviewing the evidence and determining therewas insufficient evidence to prosecute,” and that the bolstered Conviction IntegrityUnit has vacated cases involving 83 defendants during her time in office.
Veteran journalist RobWarden, cofounder of InjusticeWatch and former head of the Center onWrongful Convictions atNorthwesternUniversity School of Law, said Foxx “has been light years ahead of her predecessors in addressing wrongful convictions and protecting the rights of the accused.”
To sum up, on the piddling case that everyone’s heard about, Foxx screwed up. But as you hold that against her, remember that on the big case that hardly anyone’s heard about, she sought justice, which is whatwewant prosecutors to do.
Re: Tweets
Therewas a tie at the top in the Tweet of theWeek reader poll that ended Sept. 18 while Iwas on vacation. Sharing top honorswere, “Pro tip: Wear your Fitbit on your eating hand,” by@WilliamAder and “My husbandwants to make cauliflower crust pizza so nowI have to run to the grocery store and find a new husband’” by@mommajessiec.
The runaway winner thisweekwas “It alwayswarmedmy heart that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scaliawere friends. I hope she’s up in heavenwondering where he is” by@MattGoldich.
The poll appears at chicagotribune.com/ zorn where you can read all the finalists. For an early alertwhen each new poll is posted, sign up for the Change of Subject email newsletter at chicagotribune.com/ newsletters.