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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of James
4Zagel; and
 
5    WHEREAS, James Zagel was born and raised in Chicago; as a
6child, he walked to Chicago Bears' games at Wrigley Field from
7his family's apartment in Lakeview; and
 
8    WHEREAS, James Zagel received his Bachelor of Arts and his
9Master of Arts from the University of Chicago and his Juris
10Doctor from Harvard Law School; he played tennis while at the
11University of Chicago, and in 2011, he was awarded the
12school's Professional Achievement Award; and
 
13    WHEREAS, James Zagel began his legal career as an
14assistant state's attorney in Cook County in 1965; he quickly
15became the lead legal analyst and strategist for the office;
16in June 1966, he trained police officers and prosecutors on
17the requirements of a new Supreme Court decision, Miranda v.
18Arizona, and the next month, he was on the prosecution team for
19People v. Richard Speck, which put him at the forefront of
20forensic science and psychology and the expanding role of
21constitutional doctrine in criminal procedure, areas of law in
22which he continued to specialize throughout his career; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, James Zagel then served as assistant attorney
2general for the State of Illinois; in 1977, he became the
3executive director of the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission,
4serving until 1979; from 1979 until 1980, he was the director
5of the Illinois Department of Revenue; and
 
6    WHEREAS, James Zagel was selected by Governor Thompson to
7be the director of the Department of Law Enforcement in 1980;
8later, he was named the first director of the Department of
9State Police when Governor Thompson renamed the agency in
101985; he served from 1980 to 1987 and led the agency through a
11period of modernization and reorganization; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Under James Zagel's leadership, the ISP became
13the first state police agency accredited by the Commission on
14Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) and
15the Division of State Troopers was created; during this time,
16the State agreed to assume the additional responsibility of
17patrolling Chicago city expressways, and the ISP experienced
18the largest hiring of state troopers with what were called
19"expressway classes"; in just two months of patrolling the
20Chicago expressways, state troopers were credited with
21dramatically making the expressways safer for motorists; the
22ISP also created a first of its kind missing children program,
23the Illinois State Enforcement Agencies to Recover Children

 

 

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1Unit (I-SEARCH), which was revolutionary in the development of
2professionalizing law enforcement's response to missing
3children, nearly 11 years before AMBER Alerts were created;
4and
 
5    WHEREAS, James Zagel was a visionary who established the
6Division of Forensic Services (DFS) and made the Illinois
7State Police Crime Labs what they are today; at one time, DFS
8was the third-largest system of crime laboratories in the
9world, topped only by the FBI and Scotland Yard; the
10toxicology laboratories were moved from the Department of
11Public Health to the ISP, the Automated Fingerprint
12Identification System (AFIS) was born, and I-SEARCH funds
13secured electrophoresis equipment, which was ultimately the
14creation of the DNA discipline within the ISP Crime Labs;
15additionally, the ISP forensic laboratory system was the first
16forensic system in the nation to be accredited by the American
17Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation
18Board (ASCLD/LAB); and
 
19    WHEREAS, James Zagel was nominated by President Ronald
20Reagan to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern
21District of Illinois and was commissioned on April 22, 1987;
22and
 
23    WHEREAS, James Zagel was nominated by Chief Justice

 

 

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1Roberts to serve on the United States Foreign Intelligence
2Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court), where
3he served from 2008 until 2015; and
 
4    WHEREAS, James Zagel appeared in two motion pictures and
5authored a fictional thriller; under the stage name J.S.
6Block, he appeared as a judge in Music Box (1989) and returned
7to the screen in Homicide, David Mamet's 1991 film; alongside
8his academic writing and judicial opinions, he was an
9accomplished storyteller; in his novel, Money to Burn (2002),
10he imagined a federal judge who plans a robbery of the Federal
11Reserve Bank of Chicago; and
 
12    WHEREAS, James Zagel assumed senior status in October of
132016; and
 
14    WHEREAS, James Zagel enjoyed jazz, tennis, films,
15traveling, and spending time with his wife, Peggy; and
 
16    WHEREAS, James Zagel was a brilliant mind and jurist and
17left behind an enduring culture of ethical, professional, and
18intelligent enforcement of the law; and
 
19    WHEREAS, James Zagel is survived by his wife of 44 years,
20Margaret "Peggy" Maxwell Zagel, and many beloved cousins and
21dear friends; therefore, be it
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
2HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3we mourn the passing of James Zagel and extend our sincere
4condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved
5him; and be it further
 
6    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
7presented to the family of James Zagel as an expression of our
8deepest sympathy.