From a violent neighborhood to prosecuting violent offenders, Kim Foxx reflects on historic time in office

CHICAGO (CBS) – Kim Foxx was born in the notoriously violent Cabrini-Green housing development in Chicago, and eventually made it to the top job in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. 

Now set to move on after two terms, Foxx is proud of her personal and professional journey—with no regrets as she plans to step away from public life for a while.

"I remember the first day I walked in here," Foxx said. "Eight years seems really fast and really slow at the same time."

It was 2016 when Foxx became the first Black woman elected and sworn in as Cook County State's Attorney. One other woman, Anita Alvarez, served in the same top spot for two terms. But before Alvarez, It was a long line of men who were the county's top prosecutors.

Voters elected Foxx as Alvarez wilted under the glare of the Laquan McDonald case that year. McDonald was a Black teenager shot 16 times—murdered by a Chicago police officer. That crime, the cover-up of the wrongdoing, and the delay in charging the police officer with murder eventually led to a federal consent decree for the Chicago Police Department.

Foxx rode the wave calling for change. 

"I wanted to run this office differently than my predecessors, that centered communities like the one that I grew up in Cabrini, to be unapologetic about an agenda that impacted Black people—particularly poor Black people—Latinos, those who have been most impacted by the justice system and violence," she said.

To that end, one of Foxx's most vivid memories involves one of the issues she proudly holds up as a great achievement.

"The day I sat at the television by my desk waiting to see an exoneree released from prison for the first time in almost 30 years," she said.

The work her office did in vacating wrongful convictions—more than 250 as her term comes to an end.

There are also the controversies that will last long after she leaves office.

"I've sat here when there was a mob of people protesting against me in the wake of Jussie Smollett and being able to peer out, and see the fury in the crowd," Foxx said.

When police determined that actor Jussie Smollett had orchestrated a fake hate crime, Foxx recused herself after discussing the case with the Smollett family. Her office then dropped all 16 charges against Smollett. That was 2019, two years into her first term.

A special prosecutor, Dan Webb, was appointed to look into the SAO's handling of the case. That investigation led to six disorderly conduct charges being filed and a guilty verdict in 2022.

Webb's final report determined Foxx did nothing that warranted criminal charges, but did find "substantial abuses of power and operational failures" in her office, including making false and/or misleading statements. She takes issue with Webb's findings.

"Also went to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission to have me investigated based on those claims," Foxx said, "The reason you've not heard anything about it is because it wasn't substantiated."

Smollett was found guilty on the disorderly conduct charges in 2022, but that conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024 .

"I've never understood the international spectacle that was the Jussie Smollett coverage," Foxx said.

Foxx's highs and lows

Despite the hype surrounding the viral Smollett case that followed her for most of her two terms, there were many changes she made in Foxx's eght-year tenure that impacted not only Cook County, but the state and nation as a whole.

For example, there was the Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail. After legal challenges, it took effect in September 2023.

"It is allowing for people who are a threat to public safety to be detained and not be able to buy their way out, and for people who are not a threat to public safety to languish in jail simply because they are impoverished," Foxx said.

A recent one-year analysis of bail reform statewide by Loyola University found the new law did not lead to increased crime, more suspects not showing up for court appearances, or an increase in the use of electronic monitoring. It did, however, lead to longer court hearings and a decrease in the number of people sitting in jail.

Another achievement of which Foxx is proud was automatically vacating convictions related to marijuana after the state legalized the drug's use. That practice was adopted by other offices across the country.

"When we look at the reputation of this office nationally, as the office that fought for bail reform, and Illinois became the first state to abolish cash bail; as the office that had a history of wrongful convictions, and now the office that leads the country for the last six out of seven years in the vacating of wrongful convictions," Foxx said.

Foxx also touts the personal connection she has made to people in Chicago communities. 

"That connectivity between this beautiful office and Chatham or North Lawndale or Little Village, that they knew that this was their office," said Foxx, "and I think that was more transformative than many of my predecessors."

One of the first transformations she made was to not pursue felony charges for retail theft and shoplifting suspects unless the amount stolen reached or exceeded $1,000. State law allows a felony to be charged when $300 worth of merchandise is stolen.

"The reason we raised the threshold is that the data," Foxx said. "The evidence suggested that we had one of the lowest thresholds for retail theft in the country."

Her office still prosecuted those crimes as misdemeanors.

"The reason that we took this issue on was because we were spending more resources going after low-level shoplifting cases … more than we were guns," Foxx said.

Foxx takes issue with many of the criticisms she's faced over being soft on crime.

"What has been lost in the examination of this administration is facts," she said.

She points to data that shows violent crime has gone down for most of her eight years—excluding the pandemic years, when violent crime went up here in Chicago and nationwide.

"The evidence suggests that I'm not soft on crime," Foxx said. "The evidence suggests that Chicago has had a violent history of crime for decades, and we have not done what I think we need to do to meaningfully address crime before it starts."

Her office implemented a public data portal where people can see information about cases from intake through disposition. Another transformation that was adopted by prosecutors offices nationwide.

"When the evidence is presented to us where someone has killed someone, harmed someone, hurt someone that is sufficient for us to prosecute we prosecute. The data says that." she said.

Her thoughts about how to tackle that prevention piece of the puzzle? 

"When I look at who comes through our system, I see someone who our public education system had a hand in. I see our foster care system. I see neighborhoods impacted by economic disinvestment," Foxx said.

As Foxx prepares to leave the office for the last time, she has some advice for her successor, Eileen O'Neill Burke.

"Charge forward," Foxx said. "There will be critics and detractors and there will be supporters and those who think you can do no wrong. Listen to neither. Let them cancel each other out. Do the work that the people asked you to do."

As for Foxx – she plans to take a few months out of the public eye to do nothing but rest while pondering her next move.