| On July 7, 2003, 20-year-old Nicole Nathan was arrested in Chicago, Illinois and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a firearm.
On September 2, 2003, Nathan pled guilty to the charge in Cook County Circuit Court. She was sentenced to two years on probation.
In September 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in People v. Aguilar that the portion of the statute under which Nathan had been convicted was unconstitutional. The statute said that a person committed the offense of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon when a person “carries on or about his person or in any vehicle or concealed on or about his person except when on his land or in his abode or fixed place of business any pistol, revolver, stun gun or taser or other firearm and the firearm is uncased, loaded and immediately accessible.”
The court held that this portion of the statute violated the right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
On September 7, 2021, after her conviction was vacated and dismissed based on the Aguilar ruling, Nathan was granted a certificate of innocence. She filed a claim with the Illinois Court of Claims, and, in February 2022, she was awarded $10,000 in compensation.
– Maurice Possley
|