(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx announced Tuesday she won't run for re-election next year.
Foxx made the announcement during a City Club of Chicago luncheon, in a frequently emotional speech in which she defended her administration.
The two-term prosecutor also noted that violent crime went down the first three years she was in office, before the COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in crime nationwide. Her remarks were pushback against critics who have blamed her for a rise in violent crime since 2020.
Asked why she would not seek a third term, Foxx said she promised her family her tenure wouldn't exceed two. She said she's not sure what her next professional move will be.
Foxx, who was raised in Chicago public housing, first ran for the office in 2016 in a race dominated by questions about then-State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's handling of a Chicago police officer's killing of Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014. Foxx became the first Black woman to hold the job, joining a wave of big-city prosecutors elected on promises to overhaul the criminal justice system, including more accountability for police and a willingness to forgo prosecutions of minor offenses.
Her handling of the case against actor Jussie Smollett triggered the harshest criticism of Foxx's tenure.
Smollett, who is Black and gay, claimed in January 2019 that he had been attacked by two men shouting racial and homophobic slurs. At the time, Smollett was a popular cast member of the hit show “Empire.” Foxx's office first prosecuted Smollett before dropping the charges weeks later, but a special prosecutor revived the case and later convicted the actor.
DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin wished Foxx well.
"I have a good relationship with Kim, I have a lot of respect for her as a professional, and I wish her the best in whatever she has planned in the future," Berlin told WBBM Newsradio.
He said the next state’s attorney should be, above all, a professional.
"That's the most important thing. Someone who understands the office, someone who understands criminal law, and someone who understands the role of the state's attorney.”
Contributing: Associated Press
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