Illinois Supreme Court expands project to reduce appeal cases

CHICAGO - The Illinois Supreme Court is expanding a program that recruits volunteer attorneys in an effort to shorten the backlog of criminal appeals.

The six-month pilot program was launched in northern Illinois and Cook County, where appeals can take so long that sometimes people are acquitted after they have completed their sentences.

The program will be available in the entire state in December, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne M. Burke said Wednesday that the program reduced the backlog of criminal appeals cases.

Since its February launch, 75 attorneys have adopted 45 cases and filed 18 briefs.

“Pro bono attorneys have stepped up to the plate and sacrificed their time and used their considerable talents to achieve access to justice for those whose cases remain pending,” said Judge Bertina Lampkin, an appeals court judge in Cook County.

In January, a Sun-Times report found some people convicted of crimes in Cook County wait years for a decision on an appeal.

In 2018, the state appeals court panel for Cook County decided more than 1,300 criminal cases. Two-thirds of those decisions took at least 782 days. No other counties in the state have that long of a wait. Also, one of every 10 appeals took longer than three years to resolve.