Opinion ID: 2094369
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: defendant's pro se post-trial motion

Text: Defendant's final contention is that the trial court erred in not appointing new counsel to investigate his post-sentencing motion for a new trial. In his pro se motion for a new trial, the defendant alleged that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel because his attorneys had failed to determine whether Benjamin was a paid informant. At the post-trial hearing, defendant's attorneys admitted that they did not determine whether Benjamin was a paid informant, and they sought to withdraw from the case, and requested that the trial court appoint a new attorney to investigate the defendant's ineffectiveness claims. There is no per se rule requiring a trial court to appoint new counsel every time a post-trial motion includes an allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel. ( See, e.g., People v. Brandon (1987), 157 Ill. App.3d 835, 846, 109 Ill.Dec. 937, 510 N.E.2d 1005.) Whether an actual conflict exists is determined by the underlying allegations of ineffectiveness, and a trial court's determination that a claim is spurious will not be overturned unless it is manifestly erroneous. Brandon, 157 Ill.App.3d at 846-47, 109 Ill.Dec. 937, 510 N.E.2d 1005. In denying the defendant's motion, the trial judge stated: I think that the job that the defense attorneys have performed in their duties with reference to this case is not questionable, the evidence is quite direct and uncontradicted; and accordingly, I am not going to conjecture on possibilities or facts that are not matters which could be reasonably inferred from the facts involved herein. We can manufacture any type of case we want to in hindsight. In foresight the facts do not justify any such conclusion. The trial judge also noted that there was no hint of evidence that Benjamin was a paid informant. In fact, he felt that the argument was nothing more than a smokescreen. The defendant did not allege any new fact that would tend to show that Benjamin was paid. Accordingly, appointment of new counsel would have been wasteful and futile. See People v. Dudley (1970), 46 Ill.2d 305, 310, 263 N.E.2d 1. A trial court's findings in this matter will not be reversed unless found to be manifestly erroneous. ( Brandon, 157 Ill. App.3d at 847, 109 Ill.Dec. 937, 510 N.E.2d 1005.) Since there was no evidence anywhere in the record that even tended to show that Benjamin was a paid informant, we cannot find that the trial court's failure to appoint new counsel to investigate the allegations was manifestly erroneous. For the reasons stated, we affirm the defendant's conviction and sentence for murder. The clerk of this court is directed to enter an order setting Wednesday, May 15, 1991, as the date on which the death sentence, entered in the circuit court of Cook County, is to be carried out. Defendant shall be executed by lethal injection in the manner provided by section 119-5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 119-5). The clerk of this court shall send a certified copy of the mandate in this case to the Director of Corrections, the warden at Stateville Correctional Center, and the warden of the institution in which the defendant is confined. Judgment affirmed. Justice BILANDIC took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.