From a violent neighborhood to prosecuting violent criminals, Kim Foxx reflects on her historic time in office

CHICAGO (CBS) – Kim Foxx was born into the notoriously violent Cabrini-Green housing development in Chicago and eventually rose to the top job in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

Now ready to move on after two terms, Foxx is proud of her personal and professional journey — with no regrets as she plans to step away from public life for a while.

“I remember the first day I walked in here,” Foxx said. “Eight years seems very fast and very slow at the same time.”

It was in 2016 that Foxx became the first black woman elected and sworn in as Cook County District Attorney. Another woman, Anita Alvarez, held the same top spot for two terms. But before Alvarez, there was a long line of men who were the county’s top prosecutors.

Voters chose Foxx as Alvarez withered under the glare of the Laquan McDonald case that year. McDonald was a black teenager shot 16 times — killed by a Chicago police officer. That murder, the cover-up of the wrongdoing and the delay in charging the police officer with the murder ultimately led to a federal consent decree for the Chicago Police Department.

Foxx rode the wave calling for change.

“I wanted to run this office differently than my predecessors, who centered communities like the one I grew up in in Cabrini, not to apologize for an agenda that hurt people of color — especially poor people of color — Latinos, those who have been most affected by the justice system and violence,” she said.

To that end, one of Foxx’s most vivid memories involves one of the issues he proudly claims as a major achievement.

“The day I sat on the television by my desk, waiting to see an exoneree released from prison for the first time in almost 30 years,” she said.

The work her office did reversal of wrongful convictions— more than 250 as her term draws to a close.

There are also the controversies that will last long after she leaves office.

“I was sitting here when there were a lot of people protesting me after Jussie Smollett and I could look out and see the anger in the crowd,” Foxx said.

When police determined that actor Jussie Smollett had orchestrated a fake hate crime, Foxx recused himself after discussing the case with the Smollett family. Her office then dropped all 16 charges against Smollett. It was 2019, two years after the first mandate.

A special prosecutor, Dan Webb, was appointed to review the SAO’s handling of the case. That investigation led to the filing of six disorderly conduct charges and a guilty verdict in 2022.

Webb’s final report determined that Foxx did nothing to warrant criminal charges, but found “substantial abuses of power and operational failures” in her office, including making false and/or misleading statements. She takes issue with Webb’s findings.

“I also went to the Illinois Bar Registration and Disciplinary Commission to investigate me based on those claims,” ​​Foxx said, “The reason you haven’t heard anything about it is because it wasn’t substantiated.”

Smollett was found guilty of disorderly conduct charges in 2022, but that conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday, November 21, 2024.

“I never understood the international spectacle that was the coverage of Jussie Smollett,” Foxx said.

The highs and lows of Foxx

Despite the hype surrounding the viral Smollett case that followed her for most of her two terms, there were many changes she made in Foxx’s eight-year tenure that affected not only Cook County, but the state and the nation as a whole.

For example, there was the Fairness Before Trial Act, which eliminated cash bail. After legal challenges, it entered into force in September 2023.

“It allows people who are a threat to public safety to be detained and unable to buy their way out, and for those who are not a threat to public safety to languish in prison simply because they are poor,” he Foxx said. .

A recent one one year analysis of statewide bail reform by Loyola University found that the new law did not lead to an increase in crime, more suspects failing to appear in court or an increase in the use of electronic monitoring. However, it has led to longer hearings and a decrease in the number of people sitting in prison.

Another accomplishment Foxx is proud of was the automatic cancellation of convictions related to marijuana after the state legalized the use of the drug. This practice has been adopted by other offices in the country.

“When we look at the reputation of this office nationally, as the office that fought for bail reform, and Illinois became the first state to abolish cash bail; as the office that has had a history of wrongful convictions, and now the office that has led the country for the last six of seven years in overturning wrongful convictions,” Foxx said.

Foxx also appreciates the personal connection he has made with people in the Chicago communities.

“That connection between this beautiful office and Chatham or North Lawndale or Little Village, that they knew this was their office,” Foxx said, “and I think it was more transformative than many of my predecessors.”

One of the first transformations he made was to stop following criminal charges of retail theft and suspected of theft, unless the amount stolen reached or exceeded $1,000. State law allows a felony to be charged when $300 worth of merchandise is stolen.

“The reason we raised the threshold is because the data,” Foxx said. “The evidence suggested we had one of the lowest thresholds for retail theft in the country.”

Her office still prosecuted those crimes as felonies.

“The reason we addressed this issue was because we were spending more resources on low-level theft cases … more than we were on guns,” Foxx said.

Foxx counters much of the criticism she has faced for being soft on crime.

“What’s been lost in this administration’s scrutiny are the facts,” she said.

She points to data showing that violent crime has declined for most of her eight years — except during the pandemic years, when violent crime rose here in Chicago and nationally.

“The evidence suggests I’m not soft on crime,” Foxx said. “The evidence suggests that Chicago has had a history of violent crime for decades, and we haven’t done what I think we need to do to meaningfully address crime before it starts.”

Her office has implemented a public data portal where people can view information about cases from intake to disposal. Another transformation that has been adopted by the prosecutor’s offices at the national level.

“When we’re presented with evidence that somebody killed somebody, hurt somebody, hurt somebody, that’s enough for us to prosecute, we prosecute. The data says so.” she said.

Her thoughts on how to approach the prevention piece of the puzzle?

“When I look at who comes through our system, I see someone that our public education system had a hand in. I see our foster care system. I see neighborhoods affected by economic disinvestment,” Foxx said.

As Foxx prepares to leave office for the last time, she has some advice for her successor, Eileen O’Neill Burke.

“Load forward,” Foxx said. “There will be critics and detractors and there will be supporters and those who think you can do no wrong. Don’t listen to any of them. Let them cancel each other out. Do the work that people have asked you to do.”

As for Foxx – she plans to take a few months off from the public eye to do nothing but rest while she considers her next move.