In a race to fill a vacancy on the Madison County circuit court bench, former assistant state's attorney Amy Maher called out opponent State's Attorney Tom Gibbons saying he misrepresented the position his office had with clemency petitions of violent felons, including child killer Kwayera Jackson.
Jackson was convicted of killing his 5-month son in 1998. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2000, but was released early from prison this April when his petition went unopposed at a Prison Review Board public hearing in July 2019. He was then granted clemency by Governor JB Pritzker.
Maher said Gibbons "put his personal interest ahead of the public interest" when his office on Friday said it had a "standing objection" with the state Prisoner Review Board to "all murder case parole decisions...delivered personally by the State’s Attorney to the Board several years ago."
Prison Review Board chief legal counsel Jason Sweat refuted that, saying: "I can confirm that the Board does not permit blanket 'standing objections' in clemency cases."
Sweat also said the Board did not receive a response to Jackson's clemency petition "either in writing or via personal appearance at the public hearing held in July of 2019.
"There is no State's Attorney's office in Illinois, and specifically the Madison County State's Attorney's office, registering a blanket 'standing objection' to clemency cases before the PRB. There is a reason that the law requires that each State's Attorney be given notice and an opportunity to respond for each individual case. Our records indicate that the Madison County State's Attorney's office registered no objection to Kwayera Jackson's petition for clemency."
Republican candidate for State's Attorney Tom Haine brought the matter to light after records he sought from the Prisoner Review Board showed that 14 of 15 clemency requests since 2019 had gone "completely unopposed" by the Madison County State's Attorney's office.
Haine criticized the record of his Democratic opponent Crystal Uhe, first assistant state's attorney, saying the lack of response to clemency petitions was a "failure of leadership."
In response to a request for comment from Uhe, the State's Attorney's office provided this official response on Friday:
“The State’s Attorney registered a standing objection to all murder case parole decisions with the Prisoner Review Board, delivered personally by the State’s Attorney to the Board several years ago. The Board acknowledged the objection and assured that the Board would consider the early release objected to, unless they hear otherwise from the State’s Attorney or a member of the staff. In this specific case, that standing objection remained in place and should have been considered by the Board in making their decision. Despite this objection to release, the Prisoner Review Board made the tragic decision to release the person who committed this terrible crime back into our community, as they have now done with other individuals on countless occasions. The decision to release defendants rests solely in the hands of the Prisoner Review Board, and their denial of our objection to the release of this and many other dangerous individuals put our community at risk.
"It is unfortunate to see a young and inexperienced attorney trying to become a politician and score political points by surrounding himself with disgruntled former employees and making baseless claims. Once again, young Mr. Haine has his facts wrong, which is a very dangerous thing for someone who wants citizens to make him their State’s Attorney.”
Republican Maher and Democrat Gibbons seek to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of circuit judge Dave Hylla.
Maher said that she did some work on the Jackson case while she was an assistant state's attorney.
She said she was "shocked when she learned he had been released early with no objection from Gibbons."
“It’s even more disturbing to learn that Gibbons falsely claimed to have objected when his failure to act was revealed," she said. "Mr. Gibbons had a choice, he could tell the truth and take responsibility, or he could tell a lie and help himself in his campaign. He put his personal interest ahead of the public interest.”