From a violent neighborhood to prosecuting violent offenders, Kim Foxx reflects on historic tenure

CHICAGO (CBS) – Kim Foxx was born in Chicago’s notoriously violent Cabrini-Green housing neighborhood and eventually rose to the top position at the Cook County State Attorney’s Office.

Now that she’s 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 2016 when Foxx became the first Black woman to be elected and sworn in as Cook County State’s Attorney. Another woman, Anita Alvarez, held the same top position for two terms. But before Alvarez, it was a long line of men who were the county’s top prosecutors.

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

Foxx rode the wave and called for change.

“I wanted to run this office differently than my predecessors, centering communities like the one I grew up in in Cabrini, to be unapologetic about an agenda that impacted Black people – especially poor Black people – Latinos, those most affected by the justice system and violence,” she said.

That’s why one of Foxx’s most vivid memories involves one of the issues she proudly considers a major achievement.

“The day I sat at my desk in front of the television waiting for an exonerated man to be released from prison for the first time in almost thirty years,” she said.

The work her office did abandon wrongful convictions– more than 250 as her term comes to an end.

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

“I’ve sat here when there was a crowd of people protesting against me in the wake of Jussie Smollett and was able to 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 retaliated after discussing the case with the Smollett family. Her office subsequently dropped all sixteen charges against Smollett. That was 2019, two years after her first term.

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

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

“I have also gone to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission to be investigated based on those allegations,” Foxx said. “The reason you didn’t hear about it is because it was unsubstantiated.”

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

“I never understood the international spectacle of reporting on Jussie Smollett,” Foxx said.

Foxx’s highs and lows

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 impacted not only Cook County, but the state and nation as whole.

For example, there was the Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail. After legal challenges, it came into effect in September 2023.

“It allows people who pose a threat to public safety to be detained and unable to buy their way out, and allows people who pose no threat to public safety to languish in jail simply because they are impoverished are,” said Foxx. .

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

Another achievement Foxx is proud of was automatic avoid convictions related to marijuana after the state legalized the use of the drug. This practice was adopted by other offices across the country.

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

Foxx also credits the personal connections she has built with people in Chicago communities.

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

One of the first transformations she made was that she didn’t move on misdemeanor shoplifting and shoplifting suspects, unless the amount stolen reaches or exceeds $1,000. State law allows a misdemeanor charge to be filed if $300 worth of merchandise is stolen.

“The reason we raised the threshold is because of the data,” Foxx said. “The evidence suggested we had one of the lowest barriers to shoplifting in the country.”

Her office still prosecuted these crimes as felonies.

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

Foxx disagrees with much of the criticism she receives for being soft on crime.

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

She points to data showing that violent crime has been down for most of her eight years — with the exception of the pandemic years, when violent crime increased here in Chicago and across the country.

“The evidence suggests that I am not weak when it comes to crime,” Foxx said. “The evidence suggests that Chicago has had a violent crime history for decades, and we have not 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 through disposition. Another transformation made by prosecutors across the country.

“If the evidence is presented to us that someone killed someone, harmed someone, hurt someone, that is sufficient to prosecute, we prosecute. The data says so.” she said.

Her thoughts on how we can address that prevention piece of the puzzle?

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

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

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

As for Foxx, she plans to stay out of the public eye for a few months to do nothing but rest while she thinks about her next move.