When you live in a big city like Chicago, you can’t help but pay attention to the crime rate, specifically the number of shootings and murders you might be exposed to on a regular basis.

Although the number of shootings during the first half of this year is down from the number in 2016, the number of murders still isn’t decreasing.

From January 1 to June 30, there were 1,385 shootings in Chicago – a 12.1 percent decrease [...]

Last month, we wrote a blog post about the high number of homicides in Chicago – our city was on track to see the most murders in one year since 1996.

In the early afternoon of December 31, the last homicide of the year was committed. A 24-year old was murdered after possibly hitting another man’s Mercedes. His death brought the total up to 762 homicides throughout the city, up from only 480 homicides in 2015.

Think the [...]

Early in the morning on Thursday, December 1^st, Chicago Police found a 19-year old man shot to death on the West Side. The gunshot wounds penetrated his head and chest. By the end of the day, no arrests had been made related to the fatal shooting – but Chicago’s Police and local media did have a very important announcement: this case was the 701^st Chicago homicide in 2016.

That’s right. In less than one year, our [...]

Everyone knows that it’s wrong to kill another human being. But oftentimes, things aren’t so cut and dry. Are come types of killings worse than other types? Are there extenuating circumstances that should be recognized?

The State of Illinois certainly thinks so. Depending on the actual details surrounding a killing, there are a number of murder and related charges that a defendant might face. Understanding the charges that you are actually facing can make all the difference in the [...]