An advisory board of citizens who bring a non-legal point of view was formed to serve as a liaison between the community and the state's attorney's office and to advise the office on issues related to crime, public safety and restoring trust in the criminal justice system.
"It is no secret that there have been several cases that have come back on appeal," Nerheim said. "It is no secret that when there is discussion of wrongful conviction around the country, Lake County is part of that discussion."
The Lake County State's Attorney's office under former leader Michael Waller came under fire for a series of cases involving wrongful convictions. In the last years of Waller's tenure, the office took legal hits on four violent felony cases that DNA had contradicted. In each, prosecutors kept insisting on the accused man's guilt after blood or semen evidence proved his innocence.
All four cases eventually fell but the men had nearly spent a combined 60 years in prison.
Nerheim said the new boards will not only review cases in which a defendant's guilt is called into question, they also will work to determine the causes of wrongful convictions and recommend policies for future investigations and prosecutions.
Immediately after being sworn in Thursday, the groups began to get materials on their projects. Nerheim said he has five cases he's considering turning over to the board to examine, cases he said he gathered from defense attorneys, defendants or family members of defendants.
"We can't look at every case," said Nerheim, who said he will allow matters at the appellate court level to "run (their) course."
Nerheim said he had not made a final decision on which cases the board will first review.
But he has already denied review of one case. Defense attorney Paul DeLuca asked Nerheim to take up the case of Melissa Calusinski, a woman found guilty in 2011 of the 2009 murder of a Deerfield toddler at the day care where she worked.
Nerheim said that though not taking up cases that are on appeal isn't a "hard and fast rule," he said in Calusinski's case, "there wasn't anything that gave me particular concern."
Both boards are expected to meet once a month. While they will render their opinions to Nerheim, he said the ultimate decision will lie with him.
"I wanted to have independent, experienced, fresh sets of eyes on us," he said.
Members of the case review board include Robert Baizer, a trial lawyer and former Lake County prosecutor focused on serious personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases; retired DuPage County Circuit Court Associate Judge Peter Dockery, who began his career as a prosecutor in the DuPage County state's attorney's office; Nicholas Ivarone, a private attorney and former Cook County prosecutor and supervisor of the organized crime unit; civil litigator Ennedy Rivera, who specializes in immigration, civil and federal litigation and is the current president of the Lake County YWCA; Emilio Santi, a retired 19th Judicial Circuit judge and an attorney in private practice who co-founded and served as supervising judge of the Lake County mandatory annexed arbitration program; and Frank Zera, a former Cook County prosecutor and assistant attorney general with the Illinois Attorney General's office who chairs the Department for Criminal Justice at the College of Lake County.
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