Honorable Richard A. Devine

Cook County State's Attorney

Now in his eleventh year as Cook County State's Attorney, Dick Devine has had a long history of public service. Most recently he was re-elected for a third term as Cook County State's Attorney in November 2004, when he won almost 80 percent of the vote countywide. In the City of Chicago alone, Mr. Devine won more than 87 percent of the vote, a tribute to his proven ability to balance justice with compassion and advocacy with fairness.

During his tenure, Mr. Devine established the office's first Domestic Violence Unit, now nationally acclaimed. His victim/witness program was singled out as a model by the Department of Justice for its support of victims and their families. He led the reform of the juvenile justice system in Illinois, and his Narcotics Bureau has targeted drug sales through the prosecution of street corner conspiracies and major dealers, while providing treatment for first-time, non-violent offenders. Mr. Devine has also created a five-office Community Prosecutions Unit, a DNA Review Unit, and a Cold Case Unit to investigate unsolved murders.

Mr. Devine was one of the first prosecutors in Illinois to support death penalty reforms, even before reforms were announced by former Governor Ryan's Death Penalty Commission in 2002. By that time, the State's Attorney had already established a Capital Case Committee to conduct reviews of each potential capital case before a decision was made whether to seek the death penalty. Additionally, Mr. Devine established the videotaping of murder confessions six years before taping homicide interrogations became required by law in July 2005, and also created a training program for prosecutors on identifying false confessions.

Complimenting his legal prowess, Mr. Devine has been lauded for his administrative skills, particularly his efforts to recruit and hire minorities and women to the nation's second-largest prosecutor's office. Mr. Devine is a graduate of Loyola University and Northwestern University School of Law, where he was the managing editor of the Northwestern Law Review. He has argued cases before the Illinois Appellate Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and twice appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been a trial lawyer handling both civil and criminal cases for more than 35 years.

Born July 5, 1943, Dick Devine is a lifetime resident of Chicago's North Side. He and his wife Charlene have four grown children.