McLean County State’s Attorney Should Not Be a Judge

McLean County State’s Attorney Donald Knapp is running in the Republican Primary to be a judge in the 11th Judicial District. As State’s Attorney, Knapp has been an avid incarcerationist. He continues to order his assistant attorneys to give nonviolent, victimless drug offenders obnoxiously high bails and draconian prison sentences.

Knapp also continues to charge minors as adults, despite all evidence showing that adolescent brains aren’t developed enough to truly understand the consequences of their actions.¹ Not only does charging minors as adults not serve as a deterrent to other juveniles who commit crimes, but the longer prison sentences (in adult prisons) virtually guarantees that no rehabilitation will occur.

Some might say Knapp is tough on crime. In reality, he’s severely mentally deficient on crime. While harsh penalties may get tax-payers that libidinal urge for retribution, in the long run it will only cost them more. Long prison sentences for nonviolent, victimless drug offenses and charging youths as adults increases the burden on tax-payers. In Illinois, criminals have a 2/3rds recidivism rate. This is because Illinois prisons have little rehabilitation effect, and largely just serve as training grounds on how to continue a life in alternative economies. Knapp clearly has no interest in actually reducing crime. Instead he wants to continue to feed a mass incarceration system that has failed Illinois for decades and only benefits those corporations that profit off of the carceral system.

Even Knapp’s own colleagues question his qualifications for this position. The Illinois State Bar Association issued a “not recommended” rating for Knapp. The minimum rating to be recommended is 65% approval; Knapp only received a paltry 54.02% approval.²

Perhaps most concerning is Knapp’s interpretation of the law. Knapp has made deceptive comments about the SAFE-T Act, HB 3653, the landmark criminal justice reform bill signed into law last year.³ The law abolishes cash bail, among many other things. In an interview, with McLean County’s own insurrectionist radio station, Cities 92.9, Knapp said he is concerned that even offenses that are listed as detainable (meaning a presumption of release pre-trial is not guaranteed) still have to “pass another threshold to be detained. That is the suspect has to be a threat to a specific person.“

The reason this is the case is because (in case Knapp forgot) people are INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. Just one of those silly constitutional rights you’d expect a State’s Attorney or Judge to be familiar with. The only valid reasons to hold someone pre-trial is if they present a danger to society or if they are a flight risk. To be clear, that’s the exact way the system works now except the new laws removes the cash element. And, because everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, the burden of proof that a suspect is a danger to society and/or a flight risk is on the prosecution to prove. That’s the point of civil rights. It makes the government’s job difficult to go after you.

Here is a definitive list of detainable offenses under the SAFE-T Act:

• All non-probationable, forcible felonies (the most common are murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, home invasion, vehicular hijacking, vehicular manslaughter);
• All sex crimes (all forms of criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual abuse, child pornography related charges, and various charges relating to sexual misconduct with children and human trafficking);
• All domestic violence charges (misdemeanor and felony domestic battery and violations of orders of protection);
• All non-probationable gun-related felonies (including all forms of discharge of a firearm, sale of firearms, and most forms of possession of a firearm);
• All new arrests when someone is on Pretrial release or probation; and
• Any serious felony where there is a high likelihood of willful flight.

In the same interview, Knapp said, “It looks to us vehicular homicide … is not a a qualifying crime.” Vehicular homicide is a felony and a very serious one.

In responding to a League of Women Voters of McLean County candidate questionnaire, Knapp said to the question:

Question: What do you think are the pressing issues in the office you are running for today and into the future? How do you propose to address these issues?

Knapp: Implementing the SAFE-T Act threatens community safety by altering the workings of so
many courtrooms. My 11+ years of interpreting legislation for the appellate court to determine whether trial courts properly implemented various statutes makes me the ideal candidate to face that challenge.

League of Women Voters of McLean County

As we’ve already seen, Knapp clearly has a remedial understanding of the SAFE-T Act at best. As a judge, he would likely seriously work to interpret the SAFE-T Act in a way that is against the spirit of the legislation and will contribute to greater incarceration and greater crime.

For all these reasons, it is clear that Donald Knapp isn’t even qualified to be State’s Attorney, let alone a judge.

This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.

1. See my article on the subject.
2. It should be noted that non-sitting judges typically receive lower scores in this poll.
3. You can learn more about this legislation in the Central Illinois Research Collective official guidance on the subject.