Unlike other elected officials, the dozens of judges up for retention this year campaign and raise money as a group.

Injustice Watch is the only newsroom in Cook County dedicated to reporting on the court system. Our goal is one of public service: to listen to and center people affected by institutional injustices ...

Injustice Watch printed 200,000 copies of the judicial voting guide for the upcoming November 3 general election — more than ever before — and is ...

Each day of the 2017 trial brought troubling news about defense attorney Bernard Shelton Jr.’s health. Before jury selection began, Shelton told Cook County Circuit Judge Ursula Walowski he was ...

Every two years, Cook County voters are faced with a hefty list of judges on their ballot whom they will choose to either keep for another term or remove from the bench in what’s known as a judicial ...

Winnebago County prosecutors called former UIC lab manager Jennifer Bash to testify in a pair of fatal driving-while-high cases earlier this year despite being informed in 2024 that her now-shuttered ...

Illinois special prosecutors David Rands, left, and Brian Towne are veterans of the unit that has been dogged by allegations of misconduct and conflicts of interest. Credit: Illustrations by Verónica ...

This story was produced in partnership with WIRED. Rolando Perez Samayoa had come to the United States in 2023 seeking safety. Fleeing violence in Mexico, he’d first planned to make a life in Alabama ...

When local prosecutors might have political or personal ties to a defendant, the state brings in an elite squad of government attorneys: the Illinois Special Prosecution Unit. They are supposed to be ...

Curtis Lovelace was walking out of his law office in downtown Quincy, Illinois, when he spotted the stranger waiting by his car. “I recognized him to be a police officer,” Lovelace recalled about the ...

David and Robin Swaziek at their home on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Their daughter, Megan Wells, 31, was killed in June 2016 when local pharmacist Marc Mongan crashed his speedboat into the pontoon she ...