The following press release just popped into my in box. It pretty much speaks for itself. Donna Kelly’s web site can be found here.

Donna Kathryn Kelly Announces Candidacy For 2nd District Appellate Court
13-County District Includes McHenry County

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL — An experienced attorney and prosecutor, Donna Kathryn Kelly has announced her candidacy for the 2nd District Appellate Court in Illinois.

“I look forward to bringing my balanced career as a prosecutor, public defender and private attorney to the court,” said Kelly.  “As a long-time resident of McHenry County, and former assistant public defender in Kane County, I know the district well and it would be an honor to serve it on the Appellate Court.”

Most recently a former assistant state’s attorney in McHenry County, she was assigned to the Special Prosecutions Division, prosecuting felony cases and putting violent offenders and gang members behind bars.

Kelly also ran McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office Gang Unit.  In 2008, she led the prosecution team that successfully prosecuted “Nortenos 14” street gang members for a gang-related stabbing in Woodstock.  In 2006, she won guilty verdicts against the “Latin Kings” street gang members for a violent gang-related beating in Harvard.

Kelly is a member of the Capital Litigation Bar and qualified to prosecute and defend death penalty cases as lead counsel.  She served as an assistant appellate defender for seven years in the Office of the State Appellate Defender in the Third Appellate Court.  She has argued numerous cases before the Appellate Court, and successfully argued two cases before the Supreme Court of Illinois.

A 1994 graduate of Northern Illinois University College of Law, Kelly began her legal career as an assistant public defender in Kane County.  A long-time resident of McHenry County, she graduated from Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock.

The five-district Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases that come out of the circuit courts.  Based in Elgin, the Second District Appellate Court includes Lake, DuPage, McHenry, Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Boone, Carroll, Ogle, Lee, DeKalb, Kane, and Kendall.

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McHenry’s Thomas Hughes is chairman of her campaign committee and Crystal Lake’s Ellen Sonntag is the PAC’s treasurer.