In early December Ben Joravsky interviewed candidate Lori Lightfoot. The mayoral challenger is an experienced manager and reformer and has worked at several levels of city and state government. This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
There clearly is a double standard in our criminal justice system. And having frankly defended a lot of people who have been wrongfully accused, they get on the conveyor belt and nobody stops to say, is this a righteous prosecution? Does this really make sense? And as you well know, we’ve paid hundreds of millions of dollars to individuals who’ve been wrongfully incarcerated, some of whom have been on death row in this state. But look, I still believe in the rule of law. It’s very important to me, particularly in these times when it’s under siege.
Back in 1984 I interviewed some freshman at Northwestern University and I could not understand how somebody so young—you presume somebody at age 18 would be idealistic—could support Ronald Reagan. I presume in 1984, you were not a Reagan supporter.
