Cook County States Attorney candidates battle over wrongful murder conviction of Black boy

COOK COUNTY, ll. — The Democratic primary for Cook County States Attorney is heating up. After months of introductions, the candidates are closing with attack ads.

First came a spot by Eileen O’Neill Burke in which she called Clayton Harris III “a political insider” and  “an anti-union corporate lobbyist.”

Harris is punching back with a spot highlighting O’Neill Burke’s 1994 wrongful murder conviction of a Black boy.

O’Neill Burke, who would go on to become a defense attorney and judge, defends her actions saying no court has faulted how the state’s attorney’s office handled the prosecution. And her campaign called Harris’ attack insulting and sexist.

Her campaign’s full statement reads: “Corporate lobbyist Clayton Harris distorts the truth and believes politicians are beholden to their donors because he’s a political insider, and that’s how he plays the game. His suggestion that a woman with 30 years of experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge would be influenced by anyone is insulting and sexist. Eileen O’Neill Burke is a lifelong Democrat and proud to have earned the broad support of more than a dozen labor unions, elected officials like Congressman Mike Quigley, Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Representative Margaret Croke, and Alders Pat Dowell and Monique Scott, leaders of the pro-choice community, and lawyers who have fought to protect people’s rights. “

WGN’s Tahman Bradley sat down with Harris on Monday.

Bradley: “If Eileen O’Neill Burke is assigned a case and the facts suggest that a 10-year-old may have committed murder, isn’t she required to pursue the case? What’s your problem with what she did?

Harris: “What you’re required as an Assistant State’s Attorney is to pursue justice. It’s always about the pursuit of justice, it’s not about the pursuit of a conviction. So when you wrongly convict someone it’s neither justice nor does it make us safe.”

The O’Neill Burke’s campaign has raised questions about Harris’s work for a nonprofit funded by ride app company Lyft that fought against drivers’ push to unionize.

Harris: “The work I was doing was to benefit workers not to hamper at all.”

Bradley: “If elected and your frontline Assistant State’s Attorneys want to form a union will you support them in that effort?”

Harris: “When I’m elected — thank you — and I absolutely will.” 

The candidates have key platform differences. On retail theft, Harris says he will continue current State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s policy not to prosecute retail theft under $1,000 as a felony while O’Neill Burke says she’ll use $300 as the threshold. On prosecuting police as defendants, O’Neill Burke wants to transfer those cases to a special unit. Harris wants his office to take on those cases.

Harris: “We do not need to abdicate our power and our authority because we are scared of how it might look…. Farming it out is being scared to do the right thing.”

Spending caps are off in this race and money is flowing fast. O’Neill Burke has raised almost $ 1 million since last Tuesday. WGN will speak with her Tuesday.  

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