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CRIMINAL JUSTICE in Extremis: ADMINISTRATION of JUSTICE DURING the APRIL 1968 CHICAGO DISORDER*

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE in Extremis: ADMINISTRATION of JUSTICE DURING the APRIL 1968 CHICAGO DISORDER* CRIMINAL JUSTICE in Extremis: ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE DURING THE APRIL 1968 CHICAGO DISORDER* INTRODUCTION One result of recent incidents of urban violence is that increased attention has been focused on the goals and operation of the lower criminal courts. The purpose of this study is to examine the function- ing of the Cook County, Illinois criminal justice system in response to the mass arrests made during the riot which followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968. This inquiry was initiated by persons who observed the Cook County criminal system during the April riot. Outward indicia-in- cluding conditions in the jails, the inability of arrestees to contact friends, relatives, or lawyers, or to post bail, the authorities' refusal to conduct bond reduction hearings until days after the riot was officially proclaimed to be over, and the system's hostility toward vol- unteer lawyers and law students-suggested that under stress the lower criminal courts of Chicago had allowed the rights of defendants to be seriously abused. Our study has indeed revealed serious deficiencies in the operation of the criminal process in April 1968. But many of these deficiencies are not unique to times of civil disorder; they are rooted in serious structural infirmities in the criminal process. It is unfortunate that so much attention has focused on the lower criminal courts only in response to civil disorders. One recurring theme of this study is that in some respects the goals and operation of the * This study was supported by grants from the American Bar Foundation and the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice of The University of Chicago Law School. The study was prepared under the supervision of Roger K. Warren, Projects Editor of the Review. Members of the Review who contributed to the study include Thomas D. Kitch, Aviva Futorian, Richard S. Frase, and Bernard Zimmerman. Mark N. Aaronson, Nelson A. Soltman, and E. Thomas Unterman, third-year law students, were employed during the summer of 1968 to work on the project. Their assistance, however, continued long after their official responsibilities terminated. We would like to acknowledge the cooperation of the Chicago Riot Study Committee in helping us obtain relevant information and the Chicago Bar Association for making available transcripts of the bail hearings. There are, in addition, many persons-law pro- fessors, court and police officials, staff members of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice, and colleagues-who volunteered to read and comment on earlier drafts of this study and whose generous assistance was invaluable. The University of Chicago Law Revieo [Vol. 36:455 criminal system during a riot are no different than in ordinary times. In fact, Chicago had a virtually complete, though unarticulated, plan for dealing with mass arrest situations. That plan was an attempt to normalize the impact of riot cases on the criminal system and to nor- malize, to some extent, the impact of the criminal process on riot arrestees. In other respects the goals and operation of the Cook County criminal system were altered to meet the particular exigencies of riot conditions. There is cause for concern that during the riot the criminal justice system may have seriously deviated from the standard of an independent, guilt-determining process. But there is cause for even greater concern in the possibility that ordinary arrestees are ultimately treated little differently from riot arrestees. In this study we examine, in particular, charging policy, the bail- setting process, and the disposition of riot cases. We explore the problem of preventive detention and the tension between due process and efficient judicial administration. Wherever possible we make use of relevant information on the operation of the Cook County criminal system under normal conditions, and during past mass arrest situations. Our analysis of the administration of justice during the April 1968 riot is based primarily on a statistical analysis of the official arrest and court records of 2,189 adults1 arrested between 7 p.m. on April 4 and 7 p.m. on April 11 and processed through the emergency branch of the Municipal Division of the Cook County Circuit Court I- It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of adult riot arrestees. Chicago Police De- partment statistics show 2,574 adult riot arrests, but their figure apparently refers to the total number of charges, not defendants. Memorandum from William J. Martin, Assis- tant State's Attorney, to John J. Stamos, State's Attorney of Cook County, May 22, 1968. Our own sample includes 2,189 defendants: the 2,160 defendants for whom charge infor- mation was available were charged with a total of 2,489 offenses. It appears, therefore, that our sample includes approximately 100 fewer arrestees than the Police Department sta- tistics. We have no reason to believe that our sample is biased in any respect. Although this study is limited to an analysis of adult riot arrestees, approximately 1,200 juveniles-males under the age of 17 and females under the age of 18-were also arrested during the ten days following Dr. King's assassination. More than half were processed through Central Police Headquarters, rather than through district police sta- tions. But 61% were released after police processing. Of those required to appear in court 268 were released to the custody of a responsible adult and 186 were detained- most at the Audie Home, Chicago's juvenile detention facility. Delinquency petitions were subsequently filed in approximately 350 cases. We have no information on the final disposition of juvenile cases. Chicago Riot Study Committee files [the Chicago Riot Study Committee is hereinafter cited as Austin Committee]; interview with Walter P. Dahl, Presiding Judge, Juvenile Division, Circuit Court of Cook County, September 17, 1968; letter to Nelson Soltman from Judge Dahl, August 28, 1968. 2 Included in the sample, in addition, are approximately 350 defendants whose court records did not expressly indicate that they were processed through the emergency branch but who appear-based on such information as the charge, location of arrest, arrest re- port, and magistrate at the bail hearing-to have been arrested for riot-associated offenses. 1969] Criminal Justice in Extremis The records were not always complete. Our findings are based on those cases where relevant information was available. Variation in the number of arrestees reported in particular tables reflects that fact. We also rely on other sources. Some information, including data on the riot itself and police arrest policies, is derived from the Report and files of the Chicago Riot Study Committee. In addition, we an- alyzed a sample of 202 adult bail hearing transcripts, furnished through the courtesy of the Chicago Bar Association, in order to explore more fully the nature of the bail-setting process. We hired experienced black community interviewers to locate and interview, individually and in groups, a sample of riot arrestees selected at random from official court records. Within the limits of time and funds available for these inter- views, our interviewers were able to locate and interview fewer than twenty arrestees. While the responses of those interviewed provided insights we could not otherwise have obtained, we have not, in recog- nition of the inadequacy of the sample, generalized about their atti- tudes. Other sources of information include interviews with defense at- torneys and other persons who had firsthand experience in public and private capacities with the administration of justice during the April riot, newspaper accounts, and the testimony of informed participants before the Illinois Advisory Committee to the United States Commis- sion on Civil Rights. I. THE COOK COUNTY COURT SYSTEM In this study we will consider in some detail the processing of riot arrestees by the criminal justice system. Before doing so, however, it is necessary to outline briefly the organization of the Cook County courts and its procedure for handling of criminal defendants. In 1964, a new judicial article of the Illinois Constitution went into effect.3 It established a single Circuit Court for Cook County to replace 161 separate trial courts which had previously served the Chicago met- ropolitan area.4 The Cook County Circuit Court is the largest munici- pal court system in the United States; it serves a population of nearly six million people, 707 of whom live in the City of Chicago. Organi- zation of the Circuit Court is the responsibility of the chief judge, who is elected from among the circuit judges by the circuit and associate circuit judges and serves at their pleasure. The chief judge has "gen- eral administrative authority in the court, including authority to provide for divisions, general or specialized, and for appropriate times and places of holding court," subject only to the rule-making power of the Illinois Supreme Court. Supreme Court Rule 21(b) empowers the chief judge of each circuit to enter "general orders" in the exercise of his broad administrative authority.6 Judge John S. Boyle was elected chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court in 1964 and reelected in 1967. As his first official act as chief judge, Judge Boyle issued General Order No. 1, providing for the division of the Circuit Court into two departments, Municipal and County.7 The Municipal Department is further divided into six geographical districts; the City of Chicago constitutes the First District. The jurisdiction of the Municipal Department is limited to "criminal and quasi-criminal actions and prosecutions commenced by complaint or information"-misdemeanor and ordinance violation cases and pre- liminary hearings in felony cases." The County Department has seven subject-matter divisions-Law, Chancery, Divorce, Probate, County, Criminal, and Juvenile. The Criminal Division, which hears "criminal actions and prosecutions 3 ILL.
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