Conviction rates on murder, domestic violence in the spotlight in Winnebago County state’s attorney’s year in review

March 4, 2025|By Kevin Haas|In Local, Rockford, Top Stories, Featured, Rock River Current, 815 News

Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley takes questions from reporters on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, while delivering his year in review from the Greg Lindmark room of the Winnebago County Courthouse. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Five of the seven murder trials in Winnebago County ended with a conviction last year. There was a conviction in 100% of the trials on charges of domestic violence, and prosecutors had a 90% success rate on firearm cases involving repeat felony offenders.

Those are some of the highlights from a statistical year in review delivered Tuesday by Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley, who made it a goal after taking office in late 2020 to track and share more data with the public. Hanley, a Republican, was reelected in November after being unopposed.

Last year’s 71% conviction rate in murder trials follows a rate of 80% in 2023, when eight of 10 murder trials ended in conviction. The office’s overall conviction rate in bench and jury murder trials is 77% since Hanley took office, which is an increase from roughly 55%.

“I’ve highlighted what I think are really good things. At the same time, that homicide trial success rate, next year if that’s 60% or 50% that’s going to be in our year in review. Same with the domestic violence numbers,” Hanley said. “So while it might appear that I’m just cherry picking, we’ve reported on these numbers the last three years and they’ve stayed consistent and/or gotten better. So I’m extremely proud of that.”

Hanley gave credit to experienced and talented prosecutors for the high success rates, as well as the available financial resources from the county and grants to maintain the staff and various office programs.

Below is a break down of some of the highlights from Hanley’s year in review:

Total cases

The state’s attorney’s office handled 3,237 criminal felonies, 2,540 misdemeanors, 17,232 traffic and 819 DUI cases in 2024. Each of those numbers was an increase from 2023.

Those cases are handled by a staff of 42 full-time and five part-time assistant state’s attorneys, 11 victim service providers, five investigators and two criminal liaisons.

Related: Rockford police report drop in violent crime for third straight year

Firearm cases

The state’s attorney’s office obtained a 90% success rate on cases of unlawful possession of a firearm by a repeat felony offenders. Those convictions led to an average sentence of 6.8 years in prison.

There is a distinction between success rate and conviction rate. The conviction rate in trials refers to the total number of trials and the percentage that led to a guilty verdict. Success rate, however, refers to the percentage of cases before the office that ended with a conviction on at least one of the charges. That can mean, for example, that prosecutors may dismiss some counts against a defendant while getting a conviction on other counts. The offices records that case as a success rather than tracking the conviction rate for each individual count.

Domestic violence

The office had a 100% conviction rate at trials involving domestic violence and a 79% overall success rate on domestic violence cases. That success rate includes instances where a felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor before the conviction.

“We still consider that success because, when we talk to our survivors, one of the most important things to them is that the offender, the abuser, admits to the crime,” Hanley said. “Even if it goes from a felony to a misdemeanor that defendant still has to admit to the allegations.”

The office also had 20 convictions for stalking, something Hanley has put increased focus on in recent years. There were 25 stalking convictions in 2023, 19 in 2022 and one in 2021. There were none in 2020 before Hanley took office.

Child advocacy

In 2024, the state’s attorney’s office received 200 referrals for cases involving suspected physical or sexual abuse of children. Those referrals led to criminal charges in 70 instances, for a rate of 35%.

“When I started I think we were at 10 or 12%, and over the years we’ve gotten up to 20 or 22%,” Hanley said. “Generally, statewide, 35% is far above what the average would be … Some people might say that’s really low. In fact it’s the opposite. That’s a great number that we’re really proud of.”

The increase in charges stems from having the office’s deputy criminal chief Ali Friend both reviewing cases and forensic interviews of the minors, which is “a step above and beyond in the charging phase that’s really important,” Hanley said.

“We don’t have a conviction rate or a success rate for those sex crimes. I know it to be high, but one thing we’ll be monitoring is we want that conviction rate to remain high,” Hanley said.

Deferred prosecution

The office has a deferred prosecution program that allows offenders to keep a conviction off their record if they agree to participate in programs designed to reduce the possibility of future criminal offenses. For example, charges may be dismissed if an offender completes counseling, community service, increases educational attainment or employment.

There were more than 200 new participants in the deferred prosecution program in 2024. There were less than 150 in the program in 2023. The increase is credited to grant funding that eliminated the entrance fee, which requires offenders to pay for the program but could be a barrier to participation.

Since 2015, there have now been 1,085 participants and a successful completion rate of 93%, Hanley said.

Pretrial detention

The state’s Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect Sept. 18, 2023, eliminating cash bail and replacing it with a detention hearing that requires the judge to decide whether a defendant is a risk to the community and should be held in jail before their trial.

Last year, the state’s attorney’s office filed 1,028 petitions to detain an offender in 2,180 of the cases where detention was eligible, for a rate of 47%. Judges granted those requests, deciding to hold the defendant in jail before trial, 62% of the time.

Hanley said that cases where they don’t seek detention could, for example, be a misdemeanor domestic violence case involving a push. That’s a detainable defense, but in many cases it’s not appropriate to hold a defendant before trial on that charge.

“I’m saying there aren’t cases where (detention) might be appropriate … but most of the time it’s not,” Hanley said.

“There’s a standard that we have to meet. … There might be individuals, defendants that we think should be detained but if we can’t meet that standard we’re not going to bring it to the court’s attention.”