SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire/ The statewide fight against
gangs, guns and drugs gained a new and important weapon when Illinois'
second Statewide Grand Jury was impaneled today in the state's capital city.

Today, prosecutors from Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan's Statewide
Grand Jury Bureau were expected to begin presenting evidence before a newly
constituted Statewide Grand Jury at the Sangamon County Courthouse. The
16 member panel will meet monthly to hear evidence of gang, drug and
gunrelated crimes occurring in more than one county. Since the Statewide
Grand Jury was created by the General Assembly in 1992, prosecutors and
witnesses had to travel to Chicago when testifying before the only panel in
existence at the time.

The newly created grand jury will make it easier for Ryan's prosecutors to
bring cases outside metropolitan Chicago. Since he took office in 1995,
Ryan has made the Statewide Grand Jury unit a key weapon in his fight
against crime. The Attorney General has indicted more than nine times as
many cases compared to previous years.

"The Statewide Grand Jury continues to grow in importance in the fight
against crime in Illinois," Ryan said. "By impaneling a second grand jury
in Springfield, this already powerful tool becomes even more potent for
prosecutors and others in the law enforcement community."

Since 1992, the Attorney General has been able to, by law, convene a
Statewide Grand Jury to more effectively prosecute drug offenses allegedly
occurring in more than one county. The General Assembly broadened the
scope in 1994 to include gang and gunrelated offenses. The Statewide
Grand Jury currently meets twice monthly in Chicago at the Criminal Courts
Building at 26th and California.

Last year, Ryan pushed for legislation allowing the Attorney General to
convene a second Statewide Grand Jury downstate to ease the burden on
downstate prosecutors.

House Bill 548, sponsored by Sen. Dan Cronin (RElmhurst), was approved by
the General Assembly during the 1996 Spring session. The measure was
signed by Governor Jim Edgar last December and became effective June 1 of
this year. On June 19, Charles Freeman, Chief Justice of the Illinois
Supreme Court, assigned Judge Sue Myerscough, Chief Judge of the Seventh
Judicial Circuit, to determine whether a second Statewide Grand Jury was
necessary, which she did in a July 3 finding.

Refocusing the Office of the Attorney General to lead a statewide,
coordinated fight against crime has been Ryan's top priority and the
Statewide Grand Jury has been a principal tool. With eight veteran
prosecutors, he has doubled the size of the bureau. Correspondingly,
indictments have increased dramatically, from only four in the Statewide
Grand Jury's first three years to 37 thus far in the Ryan Administration.

Drug distribution networks, Illinois' continually expanding streetgangs and
gunrunning enterprises, by their nature, extend into more than one county.
Local prosecutors, however, are handcuffed by statutorilyimposed
boundaries: They can only prosecute those crimes which occur in their
counties, thus hampering the ability to collapse entire criminal
organizations. The Statewide Grand Jury gives Illinois prosecutors
State's Attorneys working with the Attorney General that ability.

For example, in 1994 authorities uncovered a huge marijuana and cocaine
trafficking network with its "head" in Will County and "arms" extending
into Cook, Grundy and DuPage counties. Without the Statewide Grand Jury, a
non federal prosecution would have probably meant a series of piecemeal
prosecutions. Instead, an Attorney Generalled effort of the State's
Attorneys, the Illinois State Police and local police agencies resulted in
the indictment of 19 defendants and the seizure of $5 million worth of
cocaine and marijuana. Thus far, 15 of those defendants have been convicted.

Local prosecutors also face manpower restrictions, with 38 of the 102
State's Attorneys having no assistants, 19 with one, 11 with two and nine
with three. In all, threequarters of the prosecutors' offices in Illinois
have four attorneys or less. Labor intensive, multidefendant,
multicounty cases against criminal organizations without the assistance of
Ryan's Statewide Grand Jury Bureau in some cases would be unlikely or
impossible. This is especially true for the counties served by the second
Statewide Grand Jury.

Further, many drug, gang or gun crimes require undercover investigations
needing electronic surveillance, immunity provisions, the use of
informants, and prosecutorial tools like conspiracy, racketeering and
trafficking charges. Ryan's eight Statewide Grand Jury prosecutors, with an
average of ten years' experience in such criminal prosecutions, are able
to, if needed, lend the assistance necessary to conduct these
investigations and prosecutions.

"By cooperating with state's attorneys and law enforcement officers across
county lines, we will be able to more effectively prosecute the worst
criminals in Illinois," Ryan concluded.