Patrick Murphy –

Patrick Murphy: What being Cook County’s public guardian taught me about death and dignity

April 9, 2025 at 7:05 a.m.

As Illinois lawmakers consider a medical aid in dying bill, it’s time for new debate on the philosophy and theology of dying.

Students walk between classes at Urban Prep Academy in the Englewood neighborhood on Oct. 25, 2022. Recently, the Chicago Board of Education voted not to renew the charter of Urban Prep, an all-male charter high school.

Patrick Murphy: CPS bureaucracy is holding back the wildly successful Urban Prep Academy

October 29, 2022 at 12:10 p.m.

The Chicago Board of Education recently voted not to renew the charters of two all-male Urban Prep Academy campuses. Alfonso Carmona, Chicago Public Schools' chief portfolio officer, said the recommendation...

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing March 23 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Patrick Murphy: We believe in ‘innocent until proved guilty’ — unless a defense attorney is up for office

April 4, 2022 at 1:47 p.m.

I have had a very satisfying 57-year legal career — with a few more to come, I hope. I was a prosecutor who sent a number of murderers to the...

Circuit Court Judge Patrick Murphy at his chambers at the courthouse in Bridgeview on April 13, 2010.

Commentary: Cook County Democrats’ move against Judge Toomin is a throwback we don’t want

September 16, 2020 at 2:09 p.m.

Recently, the Democratic organization of Cook County refused to support a respected jurist, Judge Michael Toomin, for retention after he made what some might consider an unpopular decision. Are we...

Juveniles walk to a class at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago in 2013. A state statute was changed to deny reporters easy access to juvenile court records. Now they must petition the juvenile court judge for such access.

Commentary: Kids are not helped by the secrecy around juvenile court records

September 13, 2019 at 4:56 p.m.

Until 2013, the Juvenile Court Act permitted representatives of the news media to inspect Illinois juvenile court records. For reasons that remain mired in the murky abscesses of bureaucratic balderdash,...

A makeshift memorial in front of the boarded-up home of 5-year-old Andrew "AJ" Freund on May 3, 2019, in Crystal Lake. His parents were charged in his slaying.

How to fix an overwhelmed DCFS dealing with overwhelmed parents — and suffering children

May 31, 2019 at 4:19 p.m.

In several cases recently, children have suffered ignominious deaths while DCFS was providing services to their parents to prevent the neglect which ultimately caused the children's demise. The public is...

The Day They Came for the Governor

July 2, 2026 at 2:50 p.m.

Ten years ago this month, Rod Blagojevich was arrested in one of the state’s most famous corruption cases. Now, for the first time, the two lead FBI investigators tell the...

"We need to invest something like a trillion additional dollars in our country. This investment will put men and women to work and benefit everybody," writes Cook County Judge Patrick Murphy.

Resuscitate the American dream for all

May 11, 2019 at 2:42 a.m.

As a Cook County Circuit judge, I hear primarily domestic relations and domestic violence cases. The people before me take a lunch box and go off to work. What I...

At Indian Oaks Academy, Meisha Singleton was attacked by peers, repeatedly bullied and taunted, government records show.

Why child welfare is so bad

May 11, 2019 at 2:08 a.m.

The abuse of Department of Children and Family Services wards in residential care as documented by recent articles in the baiduhai continues not because of the bad faith of...

Telling it like it was

August 22, 2021 at 3:04 p.m.

When I first read last week's letter from reader Brendan Tripp about the Tribune's baseball coverage, I assumed it was written tongue-in-cheek. I quickly realized it wasn't. It was actually...

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