In this We Are Witnesses film, chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois Ruben Castillo talks about his experiences that led him to the bench and how they have shaped his perspective of the criminal justice system. Watch the rest of We Are Witnesses: Chicago here:    • Surviving an Acid Attack in Chicago |...  

After law school, Castillo was a defense attorney and later became a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois where a drug dealer put a hit on him. He has also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where he argued against mandatory, uniform drug sentencing. “The drug dealer who tried to have me killed actually wrote me a letter,” Castillo explained to The Marshall Project. “And the letter asked for my forgiveness.”

Watch the rest of We Are Witnesses: Chicago here: https://www.themarshallproject.org/ch...

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