Opinion ID: 3134271
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Ill App. 3d 1053 (1995); People v. Maxwell, 272 Ill. App. 3d 57 (1995). We

Text: hold that Williams does not alter the three-prong rule set forth in Montgomery. Rather, this court in Williams was expressing concern about the indiscriminate admission of all prior felony convictions for impeachment purposes absent application of the critical balancing test mandated by Montgomery. The defendant in Williams was on trial for murder, and the trial judge allowed the State to impeach the defendant with a prior conviction for voluntary manslaughter. In overruling the defendant's objection to the impeachment, the trial judge stated that the conviction was  `of great probative value in a case of this nature,'  and, further, was  `highly probative of the nature of the offense.'  Williams, 161 Ill. 2d at 40. The trial judge seemingly allowed the impeachment because the underlying offense demonstrated the defendant's propensity for violence. As this court explained: The court's references to `a case of this nature' and `the nature of the offense' indicate that the trial judge admitted the evidence of the prior homicide conviction as being probative of the issue of defendant's guilt of the charged offense of murder, rather than as bearing upon defendant's credibility as a witness. Williams, 161