Court Opinion

ID: 9860662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:28:47.859055+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:26:18.421404
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, dissenting: Under People v. Mack, 167 Ill. 2d 525 (1995), the death penalty eligibility verdict form used in this case is legally insufficient. Contrary to the majority’s present view, the holding in Mack is not limited to situations where the jury which found the defendant death eligible was not the trier of fact at the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. Mack announced a bright-line rule which our court has followed even where the same jury heard both the guilt-innocence and death-eligibility phases of the trial. See People v. Buss, 187 Ill. 2d 144 (1999). McCallister should therefore be granted a new sentencing hearing. McCallister’s death sentence should be set aside for a second and more fundamental reason as well. As 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, XIV) and article I, section 2, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). It is therefore void and unenforceable. Accordingly, McCallister’s sentence of death should be vacated, and he should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. 720 ILCS 5/9 — l(j) (West 1994).