Radley Balko Reports: DA Considers Appeal on Judge’s Ruling about Michael Allison
The judge who dismissed Michael Allison’s case last week won’t have the final word.
An appeal by prosecutors is likely in the works, Crawford County State’s Attorney Tom Wiseman said Wednesday.
On Sept. 15, Second Illinois Judicial Circuit Judge David K. Frankland accepted Allison’s motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that eavesdropping law he is charged under is unconstitutional.
Allison’s defense filed the motion on April 29, citing three ways in which the law violates constitutional protections. Frankland granted two of the motions, rejecting the third.
Wiseman said the prosecutors – the Illinois Attorney General’s Office was brought in earlier this summer to assist with the case – have 30 days to appeal. They’ll take their time in making the next move in a case that has brought national attention to the county.
“We’re still considering all of our options at this time,” Wiseman said. “We’ve got a little time here.”
As you probably know if you read this site with any regularity, Allison faces up to 75 years in prison. If the state does appeal, that’s probably bad for Michael Allison. But it’s good for getting this awful law overturned once and for all. Allison has told me in prior conversations that he won’t accept a plea, even if he’s offered a misdemeanor. His aim is to get the law overturned.
If you’re wondering how state officials could possibly defend this law, here’s how Wiseman defended it to me last year:
Asked if he thinks Allison should spend the rest of his life in prison for recording his interactions with public officials, Wiseman says, “My job isn’t to write the laws. My job is just to enforce them.” Of course, Wiseman does have discretion over whom he charges and what charges he files. But he says Allison committed a felony, and it wouldn’t be proper for a prosecutor to overlook such a thing….
“They may have problems with some bad police officers in some of your urban areas,” Wiseman adds. “But we don’t have those problems around here. All of our cops around here are good cops.”
