Violent Crimes

If prosecutors charge you with a crime, there is a good chance you can choose to have a trial in front of a jury of your peers. These individuals consider all available evidence and decide whether you are guilty of the charged crime or innocent of it. While they have...

When Illinois residents face criminal charges and wind up in court, their cases may involve the testimony of eyewitnesses who say they saw them committing some type of crime. However, contrary to popular belief, eyewitness testimony is not particularly reliable....

One thing that many people do not understand is that assault does not always involve touching someone directly. Assault and battery is the charge you will see if you strike an individual. There are two different types of assault charges that you should understand....

If you are preparing for a criminal trial, it is normal to feel some nervousness over the jury selection process—one important detail to keep in mind that jurors have to represent a cross-section of the community. According to the United States Courts, the jury...

The 2018 state-by-state U.S. crime statistics have been released, and, unfortunately, Illinois ranks in the top 20 states for violent crime. Specifically, a report in USA Today ranks Illinois number 19 in terms of the number of violent crimes reported in our state...

When it comes to criminal cases, the evidence is incredibly important. For your defense, you want to disprove any evidence that is against you or try to show it violates the law in some way. One common defense strategy is to prove there is an issue with the chain of...

In the American criminal justice system, each crime has its own set of elements, i.e., the things that the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to convict the defendant. At the very least, each crime must contain the defendant’s voluntary...

Criminal laws on violence may be confusing. In Illinois, assault and battery are different violent crimes with distinct consequences. Homicide, kidnapping, sex offense and bodily harm are the major crimes that are committed against people in Illinois. Assault and...

We submit at the Illinois Metro East criminal defense firm of Sullivan Law that the following tale with resonate with many of our blog readers. They might reasonably regard it as a ready catalyst for a fundamental change to the state’s current practice regarding...

We spotlighted the criminal charge of domestic violence in our immediately preceding Sullivan Law blog post. We noted in our March 11 entry that a charge/conviction in Illinois “can relate to an impressively broad range of conduct.”The expansive universe...