Court Opinion

ID: 9819730
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:32:59.360167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:31.900603
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GREIMAN, dissenting: The majority has chosen to address most1 of defendant’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel under the plain error rule (134 Ill. 2d R. 615(a)). As the majority notes, a court may review otherwise unpreserved error under the plain error rule where “(1) the evidence in a criminal case is closely balanced or (2) the error is so fundamental and of such magnitude that the accused is denied the right to a fair trial and remedying the error is necessary to preserve the integrity of the judicial process.” People v. Johnson, 208 Ill. 2d 53, 63-64 (2003). In concurring with the jury’s verdict, I believe the majority is correct in finding that the evidence was not so closely balanced factually that the alleged ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial error could have altered the outcome of this case. However, I also believe that none of the alleged errors, whether taken individually or cumulatively, preserved or unpreserved, constitute reversible error. The majority holds that the cumulative effect of the prosecution’s improper questioning of the defense witnesses, its misstatement of the burden of proof, its improper vouching for certain witnesses, and its comments regarding the defendant’s postarrest silence and his prior criminal background deprived defendant of a fair trial. In addition, it finds defendant’s counsel ineffective for failing to make timely objections and for indicating “that he lacked the requisite expertise to appropriately cross-examine experts on their opinions,” thereby bolstering those opinions. 347 Ill. App. 3d at 928. I respectfully disagree. As noted in my dissent to the majority’s previous opinion (People v. Young, 323 Ill. App. 3d 1078, 1095-96 (2001) (Greiman, J., dissenting)), most of the errors of which defendant complains have been found by Illinois courts not to constitute reversible error when found to have as limited an impact on the proceedings as I believe these alleged errors have in the present case. See, e.g., People v. Turner, 128 Ill. 2d 540, 557 (1989) (queries regarding why another witness testified as he did held to be proper); People v. Riley, 63 Ill. App. 3d 176, 184-85 (1978) (questioning of another witness’s veracity held improper, but generally not reversible error); People v. McKinley, 242 Ill. App. 3d 124, 131-32 (1992) (prosecutor’s comment on defendant’s failure to produce an expert held to be proper where prosecutor does not assert that defendant had an obligation to prove the expert wrong); People v. Pecoraro, 144 Ill. 2d 1, 16 (1991) (comment that the jury’s disbelief in certain witnesses will lead to a not-guilty verdict held to be proper where the prosecution’s version of the incident varies substantially from the version given by the defense); People v. Bailey, 249 Ill. App. 3d 79, 82 (1993) (holding that it is not error per se for a prosecutor to use the first person in addressing the jury); People v. Hall, 194 Ill. 2d 305, 339 (2000) (holding that although the erroneous admission of other-crimes evidence ordinarily calls for reversal, the evidence must have been a material factor in the defendant’s conviction such that, without the evidence, the verdict likely would have been different); People v. Buss, 187 Ill. 2d 144, 245-46 (1999) (holding that counsel was not ineffective where defendant has not demonstrated prejudice resulting from his counsel’s failure to object to the portion of the argument at issue); People v. Steading, 308 Ill. App. 3d 934, 939 (1999) (holding that counsel is not ineffective where defendant has not demonstrated how any further investigation of the witness would have changed the outcome of the case); and People v. Harris, 182 Ill. 2d 114, 158 (1998) (holding that defense counsel’s admission of his own ineffectiveness is not determinative of the issue). However, I was initially inclined to agree with the majority that the prosecution committed reversible error in questioning defendant about his postarrest silence, thereby violating the due process clause of the fifth amendment. U.S. Const., amend. V The case relied upon by the State in its motion to cite additional authority, People v. Colts, 269 Ill. App. 3d 679 (1993), has convinced me otherwise. There, the prosecutor asked defendant when he first told anyone about his alibi. On appeal, defendant contended that question drew attention to his postarrest silence, in violation of Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 49 L. Ed. 2d 91, 96 S. Ct. 2240 (1976). We held: “The prosecutor did not ask about defendant’s silence during police questioning; instead, the prosecutor’s question covered many conversations with private parties over an extended period of time. In the months prior to trial, defendant had ample opportunity to discuss his case with counsel and others, under circumstances in which a person would normally mention where he had been, if he had not been at the crime scene. The trial court properly overruled defendant’s objection to the question.” Colts, 269 Ill. App. 3d at 692. Because the prosecutor’s query in the present case, “[s]o the first time you are telling anybody about that [the self-defense theory] is today here,” is indistinguishable from that in Colts, I believe that controlling case law compels a finding that no Doyle violation occurred. With respect to People v. Johnson, 208 Ill. 2d 53 (2003), I do not find, in the case at bar, the kind of “pervasive pattern of error engendered by prosecutorial misconduct” that was in Johnson. Much of the objectionable matter in Johnson related to the suggestion by the State that defendants did not testify. Here, defendant testified, so that his right to remain silent was not in question. Similarly, we are not presented with the State’s closing argument which attempts to steer prejudice and outrage so as to direct the jury’s attention to an inappropriate consideration of the evidence. I find that none of the alleged errors, as previously discussed, rise to the level of grave, reversible error. Consequently, I disagree that plain error may be used to sidestep the general rule of waiver outlined in People v. Enoch, 122 Ill. 2d 176, 186 (1988). I respectfully dissent.  In his brief, defendant alleges 27 errors, yet has properly preserved only 4 of these alleged errors for review.