Opinion ID: 2246592
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Cumulative Unconstitutionality

Text: Defendant's final argument is that several provisions of the Illinois death penalty statute, although each itself has been found to be constitutional by this court, collectively function to make the Illinois capital sentencing process unconstitutionally arbitrary and capricious. Defendant challenges the cumulative effect of the following components of the Illinois capital sentencing scheme: (1) prosecutorial discretion; (2) absence of required pretrial notice; (3) limited comparative proportionality review; (4) absence of required written findings by sentencer; (5) absence of requirement that all aggravating evidence be made known to defendant before trial; (6) prosecution's burden of proof; and (7) preclusion of sentencer's consideration of exact range of applicable sentences other than death. In People v. Phillips (1989), 127 Ill.2d 499, 542-43, 131 Ill.Dec. 125, 538 N.E.2d 500 this court rejected this argument, and recapped the various precedent rejecting the individual arguments, stating [i]f all of the individual aspects are constitutional, we stand by the conclusion that the whole is also constitutional. Defendant states nothing new here to persuade us to reconsider.