Public defenders for a man accused of the unprovoked stabbing death of a visiting graduate student in downtown Chicago in 2021 paused their fight over facial recognition technology, after new evidence showed it was a moot issue Friday.
Attorneys for defendant Tony Robinson, 45, had argued in August that the technology isn’t reliable and may have tainted the case.
They’re now dropping that strategy after new evidence provided by the state’s attorney’s office showed police did not rely on a facial recognition-generated mugshot when presenting an array of photos to a witness.
It was believed to be the first time facial recognition technology was challenged in court in Cook County, and possibly Illinois.
Though it’s no longer factoring into this case, assistant public defender Quandee Semrow told the Sun-Times after court adjourned that facial recognition technology is still a “black hole” for many defendants.
“We know that the Chicago Police Department has been using facial recognition technology to some extent since at least 2016,” Semrow said. “It’s always been in the background. It’s rarely been disclosed to a defendant.”
Critics of the technology say it isn’t reliable and can introduce bias early in an investigation, when police are trying to identify who committed a crime.
“We feel this lack of transparency is an issue,” Semrow said.
Prosecutors have said facial recognition technology was not central to the Robinson arrest and that there is plenty of evidence connecting Robinson to the killing.
The case was one of several examined in a Chicago Sun-Times investigation into violent attacks in the downtown area in which the accused exhibited symptoms of severe untreated mental illness.
In the days before Anat Kimchi was killed, police say Robinson committed other violent acts downtown, including striking a woman in the head in the 500 block of South Franklin Street and hitting another woman and breaking her nose and stealing her iPhone and cash near Congress Parkway and South Michigan Avenue.
Robinson, who lived in a tent on Lower Wacker Drive and had a history of arrests and bizarre behavior, told detectives “he believes people are following him and tracking his location using their cellphones,” according to a police report.
Robinson is accused of sneaking up behind Kimchi, 31, a vacationing University of Maryland graduate student, in the 400 block of South Wacker Drive on a sunny afternoon. He allegedly grabbed her backpack and stabbed her in the neck with a 7-inch Bowie knife.
Kimchi was able to hand her cellphone to a stranger to call 911 before she died.
A beloved presence on the University of Maryland campus, Kimchi, who was studying criminal justice, was posthumously awarded her doctorate degree two weeks after her death.
Her family established two awards to further her work: a research award for UMD graduate students and an award for students who wish to attend the annual American Society of Criminology conference.
Kimchi’s family members have been closely following the court appearances via Zoom, including on Friday.
Robinson’s next court date is Nov. 19.
The case has dragged on for more than four years. A trial is expected in early 2026.