Courtroom 302

On January 20, 1998, deputies unloaded prisoners from police wagons and took them into the Cook County Criminal Courthouse, "the biggest and busiest felony courthouse in the nation” (3). It was a federal holiday—the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday—but this hasn’t quelled the steady stream of detainees. On average 1,500 people entered the courthouse each week for a bond hearing; hat amounted to around 78,000 men and women each year.

The courthouse was located “in a Mexican neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side” (3). Its “cinder-block walls and metal benches” were decorated with crude graffiti (3). 15 prisoners were rounded up: 12 of the men were black and three were white. The prisoners had been arrested for “the usual reasons”—selling crack, attempting to buy heroin from an undercover cop, and shoplifting liquor (3). When they entered the district station, they were ordered to remove their belts and shoelaces and to empty their pockets. They were then told to place their hands behind their backs and to keep them there—a rule branded “the First Commandment” (10). When they heard their surnames, they were to respond with their given names. Not following directions resulted in harsh and profane reprimands. For sustenance, they were handed coffee in Styrofoam cups and baloney sandwiches on white bread.