Bill Text: IL HR0416 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mourns the death of Judge James Zagel.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 3-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-24 - Resolution Adopted [HR0416 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HR0416-Introduced.html

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.