Court Opinion

ID: 9819058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:18:10.879902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:27.791109
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree that Richardson’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 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, XIV) and article I, section 2, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). Richardson’s sentence of death should therefore be vacated, and the cause should be remanded to the circuit court for imposition of a sentence of imprisonment. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 38, par. 9 — l(j).