HR0416 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0416 LRB103 34043 MST 63860 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of James Zagel; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel was born and raised in Chicago; as a child, he walked to Chicago Bears' games at Wrigley Field from his family's apartment in Lakeview; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel received his Bachelor of Arts and his Master of Arts from the University of Chicago and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School; he played tennis while at the University of Chicago, and in 2011, he was awarded the school's Professional Achievement Award; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel began his legal career as an assistant state's attorney in Cook County in 1965; he quickly became the lead legal analyst and strategist for the office; in June 1966, he trained police officers and prosecutors on the requirements of a new Supreme Court decision, Miranda v. Arizona, and the next month, he was on the prosecution team for People v. Richard Speck, which put him at the forefront of forensic science and psychology and the expanding role of constitutional doctrine in criminal procedure, areas of law in which he continued to specialize throughout his career; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel then served as assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois; in 1977, he became the executive director of the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, serving until 1979; from 1979 until 1980, he was the director of the Illinois Department of Revenue; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel was selected by Governor Thompson to be the director of the Department of Law Enforcement in 1980; later, he was named the first director of the Department of State Police when Governor Thompson renamed the agency in 1985; he served from 1980 to 1987 and led the agency through a period of modernization and reorganization; and

WHEREAS, Under James Zagel's leadership, the ISP became the first state police agency accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) and the Division of State Troopers was created; during this time, the State agreed to assume the additional responsibility of patrolling Chicago city expressways, and the ISP experienced the largest hiring of state troopers with what were called "expressway classes"; in just two months of patrolling the Chicago expressways, state troopers were credited with dramatically making the expressways safer for motorists; the ISP also created a first of its kind missing children program, the Illinois State Enforcement Agencies to Recover Children Unit (I-SEARCH), which was revolutionary in the development of professionalizing law enforcement's response to missing children, nearly 11 years before AMBER Alerts were created; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel was a visionary who established the Division of Forensic Services (DFS) and made the Illinois State Police Crime Labs what they are today; at one time, DFS was the third-largest system of crime laboratories in the world, topped only by the FBI and Scotland Yard; the toxicology laboratories were moved from the Department of Public Health to the ISP, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) was born, and I-SEARCH funds secured electrophoresis equipment, which was ultimately the creation of the DNA discipline within the ISP Crime Labs; additionally, the ISP forensic laboratory system was the first forensic system in the nation to be accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB); and

WHEREAS, James Zagel was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and was commissioned on April 22, 1987; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel was nominated by Chief Justice Roberts to serve on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court), where he served from 2008 until 2015; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel appeared in two motion pictures and authored a fictional thriller; under the stage name J.S. Block, he appeared as a judge in Music Box (1989) and returned to the screen in Homicide, David Mamet's 1991 film; alongside his academic writing and judicial opinions, he was an accomplished storyteller; in his novel, Money to Burn (2002), he imagined a federal judge who plans a robbery of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel assumed senior status in October of 2016; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel enjoyed jazz, tennis, films, traveling, and spending time with his wife, Peggy; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel was a brilliant mind and jurist and left behind an enduring culture of ethical, professional, and intelligent enforcement of the law; and

WHEREAS, James Zagel is survived by his wife of 44 years, Margaret "Peggy" Maxwell Zagel, and many beloved cousins and dear friends; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of James Zagel and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of James Zagel as an expression of our deepest sympathy.