Court Opinion

ID: 9720723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:40:04.244193+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:20.823897
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KILBRIDE, also dissenting: Defendant’s convictions and sentence should be set aside because the trial proceedings were not conducted in accordance with the new supreme court rules governing capital cases. See People v. Hickey, 204 Ill. 2d 585, 636-40 (2001) (Kilbride, J., dissenting), and People v. Simpson, 204 Ill. 2d 536, 581-85 (2001) (Kilbride, J., dissenting). For the reasons expressed in my dissents in Hickey and Simpson, I maintain that convictions and sentences obtained in capital cases prior to this court’s adoption of the new rules are inherently unreliable because the old system did not adequately protect a defendant’s constitutional rights. The new rules were promulgated to address these constitutional deficiencies and, as a result, must be applied retroactively to all capital cases currently being reviewed by this court. See People v. Hudson, 195 Ill. 2d 117, 126 (2001), citing Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 328, 93 L. Ed. 2d 649, 661, 107 S. Ct. 708, 716 (1987).