Fourth District Appellate Court

Three-quarters of all attorneys who passed the bar exam in February opted to work in Cook County. The Illinois Supreme Court has been examining ways to address legal deserts in small and rural counties across the state.

Richard Gaines was convicted by a McLean County jury in 2024. An appellate court has tossed out two of three convictions and sent the case back to McLean County for resentencing.

The Fourth District Appellate Court has reversed a circuit court decision and bounced a property tax dispute between Logan County and the not-for-profit that formerly ran Lincoln College back to the lower court.

An appellate court has denied Jamie Snow's request for more evidence testing that he thinks will exonerate him in a 1991 Bloomington murder.

A state appeals court has ruled that a Woodford County judge did not properly consider the level of impairment before sentencing a woman to 11 years in prison after a fatal DUI crash in 2022.

The Illinois Supreme Court has formally appointed a northern Illinois judge to the appellate court for the district that includes McLean County.

An Illinois State University graduate, Raylene DeWitte Grischow, is the newest appellate judge in Central Illinois.

The Fourth District Appellate Court is upholding the 18-month prison sentence Jeffrey Reinking received for illegally returning to his son an AR-15 Bushmaster rifle that he later used in a Tennessee mass shooting that left four people dead.

Jeffrey Reinking was convicted in 2022 of illegally giving his son Travis Reinking an assault-style weapon he used in a 2018 shooting that left four dead at a Waffle House in Tennessee. A Tazwell County judge sentenced Reinking to 18 months in prison for delivery of a firearm to a person who had been treated for mental illness within five years.

Michael Luedtke complained of a knee injury following an altercation with a man during an Aug. 24, 2018, response to a call involving a woman with self-inflicted injuries on Rainbow Circle.