Court Opinion

ID: 9518531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:55:20.317641+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:29.380966
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SIMON, dissenting: The majority is not troubled by the prosecutor’s extensive commentary concerning the defendants’ common gang membership and gang activity. The reason given by the majority is that “the evidence supports the State’s comments.” (99 Ill. 2d at 517.) The defendants’ objection, however, was not that there was no factual basis in the record for making these statements, but that the statements were irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial. Gang membership and the activities of gang members may be relevant in cases in which the crime charged has some connection with the gang, such as where the members of one gang attack or take revenge on the members of another gang as the result of gang rivalry. However, in this case the victim was a member of the same gang as his attackers, and no gang-related motive for the slaying was argued or shown. The attack appeared to be spontaneous, and based on the evidence no reason for it is readily apparent. Knowledge that Ronald and Duane Terry were street gang members did not aid in determining the extent of their involvement in the killing. Gangs are not popular among a great many members of our society, and the very knowledge that the defendants belonged to a gang might have served the impermissible purpose of causing the jurors to fear the defendants and to seek for that reason to convict them of a more serious crime than they might otherwise have. I would remand the cause for a new trial.