Opinion ID: 2218866
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Waiver of Argument Opposing 90 Days' Sentence Credit

Text: The sentencing order stated that defendant was to receive credit for actual days served in the Whiteside County jail. The mittimus which issued failed, however, to specify the exact number of days to be credited. On review by the appellate court, the parties and the court agreed that defendant had been held in the jail for 155 days and that a remand was necessary so that the mittimus could be amended to reflect the exact number of sentence credit days. The parties disputed, however, whether the defendant could receive sentence credit for the 90 days he had served for contempt. Finding that trial judges have the discretionary authority to grant or deny credit as justice requires under the circumstances, the appellate court remanded the matter to the trial court for further proceedings to determine the appropriate number of days to be credited and to amend the mittimus accordingly. 241 Ill.App.3d at 89, 181 Ill.Dec. 562, 608 N.E.2d 635. Defendant contends the State waived its claim that defendant could not receive credit for the 90 days served for contempt by failing to assert the claim at trial. According to defendant, the appellate court, thus, erred in allowing the State the opportunity to raise the claim on remand. Defendant additionally claims that a denial of 90 days' sentence credit on remand would violate the prohibition against increasing a sentence after the sentencing hearing. (See Ill.Rev.Stat. 1991, ch. 38, par. 1005-8-1(e); People v. Hills (1980), 78 Ill.2d 500, 36 Ill.Dec. 682, 401 N.E.2d 523.) The State responds that, because defendant did not request a calculation of the number of days at trial, the State had no reason to object or otherwise respond. Although neither party has raised this point, a careful review of the record reveals that the matter is moot. The common law record contains three pages of docket sheets. The entry for May 3, 1991, with the Honorable John Donald O'Shea, presiding, shows that defendant was found in contempt of court and sentenced to 90 days in the Whiteside County jail. The entry for September 24, 1991, states that defendant was sentenced to 10 years DOC + costs and ordered to pay $2,767.93 in restitution within two years of release. The entry for the next day, September 25, 1991, with the Honorable Robert W. Castendyck, presiding, states: Court conferred with Judge O'Shea, the sentence for contempt was vacated in view of this sentence to the DOC. There is no other reference in the record of proceedings, or in other parts of the common law record, to the vacatur of defendant's 90-day sentence for contempt. We, therefore, accept the docket sheets to be a true accounting of events before the trial court. (See People v. Fike (1987), 117 Ill.2d 49, 56, 109 Ill.Dec. 172, 509 N.E.2d 1011 (common law record, including docket sheet, `imports verity and is presumed correct').) Notably also, the record shows no objection by either party to the vacatur of the contempt sentence (see People v. Heil (1978), 71 Ill.2d 458, 17 Ill.Dec. 673, 376 N.E.2d 1002) or to the trial court's exercise of jurisdiction in doing so (see Ad-Ex, Inc. v. City of Chicago (1990), 207 Ill.App.3d 163, 179, 152 Ill.Dec. 136, 565 N.E.2d 669). Accordingly, we find that the trial court properly vacated defendant's 90-day sentence for contempt. It is elemental that the vacatur of a sentence renders the sentence null and void and of no legal effect. Thus, there can remain no issue as to whether defendant can receive a sentence credit for the 90 days he served for contempt. As a result, the related issue as to whether the State has waived argument of this point is now moot. Nonetheless, we agree with the appellate court and the parties that the cause should be remanded so that the mittimus can be amended to specify 155 days served by defendant in the county jail. For the sake of judicial economy, however, because the trial court ordered that defendant was to receive sentence credit for actual days served in the county jail, and there is no dispute that defendant served 155 days, we grant defendant 155 days sentence credit. In doing so, we need not vacate the mittimus, as did the appellate court (241 Ill.App.3d at 90, 181 Ill.Dec. 562, 608 N.E.2d 635) for defendant to receive the sentence credit to which he is entitled. To that limited extent, we reverse the appellate court and simply grant defendant 155 days sentence credit.