New Cook County unit formed to review prosecutions
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Cook County state's attorney office, long criticized in legal circles for the way it handles wrongful conviction cases, has formed a unit to review questionable prosecutions.
State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Thursday the conviction integrity unit is a "shift in philosophy" and a desire to increase the office's focus and openness about such cases.
Alvarez said the unit will pay particular attention to confessions by young defendants and cases that rely on a single witness.
Last year, a group of lawyers filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief on behalf of seven men convicted of murder as teens in which the lawyers contended Alvarez had a tendency to fight new trials even when evidence of innocence existed.
Since Alvarez's election in 2008, 13 convictions have been overturned amid allegations of police wrongdoing.