Opinion ID: 3135632
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: In 1994, following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant, Cleother Tidwell, was convicted of attempted first degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. He was sentenced to an extended term of 55 years’ imprisonment. On direct appeal, defendant argued that the trial court erroneously failed to give a jury instruction on reckless conduct and that his sentence was excessive. The appellate court rejected those contentions. People v. Tidwell, No. 1–94–2655 (1995) (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23). On May 6, 1996, defendant filed a pro se postconviction petition, alleging, in part, that trial counsel had rendered ineffective assistance with regard to a reckless conduct defense and instruction thereon. The appellate court affirmed the circuit court’s summary dismissal of defendant’s petition after granting the public defender’s motion for leave to withdraw as counsel pursuant to Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551, 95 L. Ed. 2d 539, 107 S. Ct. 1990 (1987). People v. Tidwell, No. 1–96–3101 (1997) (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23). On December 20, 2006, the successive pro se postconviction petition in this matter was received by the circuit clerk. Therein, defendant alleged, inter alia, that People v. Novak, 163 Ill. 2d 93, 112-13 (1994), cited on direct appeal to support the trial court’s denial of an instruction on reckless conduct under the charging instrument approach, had been overruled by this court’s decision in People v. Kolton, 219 Ill. 2d 353, 364, 367 (2006). In that case, this court held that an offense may be considered a lesser-included offense even if every element of the lesser offense is not explicitly contained in the indictment as long as the missing element can be reasonably -2- inferred. On the basis of Kolston’s reasoning, defendant claimed that an instruction on reckless conduct as a lesser-included offense of attempted murder should have been tendered at trial. Though no motion accompanied the petition, and defendant made no express request for leave to file same, the circuit court nonetheless considered the allegations of defendant’s petition as they bore upon the threshold issue of cause and prejudice, and ultimately issued a thorough six-page order, concluding that defendant had failed to satisfy the cause-and-prejudice test. The circuit court noted: “In petitioner’s case, he was charged with attempted first degree murder for shooting the victim with intent to kill and with aggravated battery for shooting her intentionally and knowingly. Reckless conduct is defined as consciously disregarding a risk. ‘It is not defined in the charging instrument and thus under Novak, defendant was not entitled to an instruction on it.’ [Order at 4, quoting from the appellate court’s 1995 Order.]