Court Opinion

ID: 9862059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:59:08.818385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:29:58.907425
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree that Mahaffey’s convictions should not be disturbed. In my view, however, his sentence of death cannot be allowed to stand. For the reasons set forth in my partial concurrence and partial dissent in People v. Bull, 185 Ill. 2d 179 (1998), the Illinois death penalty law violates the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amends. VIII, XTV) and article I, section 2, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). Mahaffey’s sentence of death should therefore be vacated and he should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 38, par. 9 — 1(j). Because Mahaffey was found guilty of murdering more than one victim, the term of his imprisonment must be natural life. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 38, par. 1005 — 8—1(a)(1)(c).