Opinion ID: 3135205
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant’s Proportionate Penalties Arguments

Text: The State argues that the circuit court reached a faulty conclusion with respect to the 15- and 20-year enhancements to the first degree murder statute. We agree. The trial court struck down the 15- and 20-year enhancements under the proportionate penalties clause by comparing them to an offense with different elements. This is not a proper application of the proportionate penalties clause. The trial court did not compare the enhanced offenses to an offense with identical elements, nor did it find that the enhanced penalties were cruel or degrading or so wholly disproportionate to the nature of the offense that they shocked the moral sense of the community. Accordingly, the trial court erred in its application of the proportionate penalties clause.
Defendant makes an additional type of cross-comparison argument. Defendant compares the enhanced versions of murder to simple murder and argues that it violates the proportionate penalties clause to punish murder in which a firearm is involved more harshly than murder in which a different type of weapon is involved. In making this argument, defendant uses the pre-1997 type of cross-comparison analysis in which two different offenses are compared, but that they are judged under the “cruel or degrading” standard. Defendant argues that it must shock the moral sense of the community that every murder committed with a gun receives a higher minimum penalty than any murder, however foul, committed without a firearm. Davis , however, established that cross-comparison challenge and the “cruel or degrading” challenge are separate types of proportionate penalties challenges and that the latter requires only that the penalty be examined in relation to the offense for which it is applied. Davis , 177 Ill. 2d at 503-04. Defendant’s argument fails under either analysis. First, we have held today that cross-comparison challenges are no longer valid. Second, we have already held in Morgan that it is neither cruel nor degrading, nor would it shock the moral sense of the community, to apply the 15/20/25-to-life enhancements to attempted first degree murder. Morgan , 203 Ill. 2d at 488. Logically, then, it could not possibly be cruel or degrading or a shock to the moral sense of the community to apply the enhancements to first degree murder itself. The sentence enhancements were put into place because of the legislature’s recognition of the significant danger posed when a firearm is involved in a felony. As defendant recognizes in another section of his brief, “it is a fact that firearms have the potential to harm or kill more than one person without any or little extra action by the offender. It is this risk of harm or death to others that the legislature sought to punish when it enacted the enhancement.” (Emphasis in original.) We conclude that it would not shock the conscience of the community to learn that the legislature has determined that an additional penalty ought to be imposed when murder is committed with a weapon that not only enhances the perpetrator’s ability to kill the intended victim, but also increases the risk that grievous harm or death will be inflicted upon bystanders. See Morgan , 203 Ill. 2d at 488-89; Hill , 199 Ill. 2d at 452-53 (rejecting “shock the conscience” challenge to Public Act 91–404 enhancements to home invasion). Defendant further argues that the enhancements to the murder statute violate the proportionate penalties clause because they do not serve the purpose of “restoring the offender to useful citizenship.” Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §11. The proportionate penalties clause requires that penalties be determined both according to the seriousness of the offense and with the objective of restoring the offender to useful citizenship. Defendant contends that by setting forth lengthy mandatory minimum sentences for murder involving a firearm, the legislature has failed to consider the objective of restoring the offender to useful citizenship. We disagree. In People v. Dunigan , 165 Ill. 2d 235, 245 (1995), this court stated the following: “Our court has previously rejected claims that the legislature violates article I, section 11, when it enacts statutes imposing mandatory minimum sentences. Our decisions have recognized that the legislature’s power necessarily includes the authority to establish mandatory minimum sentences, even though such sentences, by definition, restrict the inquiry and function of the judiciary in imposing sentence.” Moreover, this court has held that, in fixing a penalty for an offense, the possibility of rehabilitation is not given greater weight or consideration than the seriousness of the offense. Taylor , 102 Ill. 2d at 206. The legislature codified a statement of intent setting forth how serious it considers the use of firearms during the commission of felonies (720 ILCS 5/33A–1 (West 2002)), and the enhanced sentences are in accord with the legislature’s determination in this regard. The legislature did not make the enhancements applicable to all defendants who commit felonies with firearms, but only those who commit some of the most serious felonies (first degree murder; intentional homicide of an unborn child; aggravated kidnapping; aggravated battery of a child; home invasion; aggravated criminal sexual assault; predatory criminal sexual assault of a child; armed robbery; aggravated vehicular hijacking; and armed violence). Defendant has failed to convince us that the legislature did not take into account rehabilitative potential when making these enhancements applicable to first degree murder. Defendant makes one final proportionate penalties argument. He contends that the 25-to-life enhancement must be invalidated under the identical-elements test. Here defendant contends that the crime of first degree murder is comprised of identical elements regardless of whether that crime is committed through the use of a firearm or otherwise, and it is therefore illegitimate to impose a higher sentence when a firearm is used. This argument assumes what it attempts to prove, however, with respect to the identity of the elements of the crimes. Even a casual consideration of the issue reveals that for the 25-to-life enhancement to apply, there are indeed additional facts which must be proven: that the perpetrator personally discharged a firearm during the commission of the offense and that he “caused great bodily harm, permanent disability, permanent disfigurement, or death to another person” thereby. 730 ILCS 5/5–8–1(a)(1)(d)(iii) (West 2002). This is not a case in which different sentences are imposed for crimes with identical elements. Accordingly, we reject defendant’s proportionality challenge to the 25-to-life enhancement.