Court Opinion

ID: 9728283
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:04:00.352865+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:47.427103
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the majority of the court. The evidence adduced at trial reveals a situation where reasonable men might disagree as to what defendant believed when she shot her husband, and whether that belief was reasonable. Questions of this sort are particularly within the province of the jury. (People v. Aguero (1980), 87 Ill. App. 3d 358, 408 N.E.2d 1092.) Consequently, I am most reluctant to substitute my assessment of the record on appeal for the judgment of those who had the opportunity to observe the testimony of live witnesses. It is with this reluctance in mind that an analysis of the evidence is undertaken. It is clear that defendant’s fear of physical harm from her husband was quite reasonable. He had beaten her earlier that day. It was this fear that motivated defendant to get a loaded gun from the house. Defendant’s husband proceeded to verbally and physically abuse her after entering the house. Defendant, obviously frightened, sat down in a chair near the back door. As her husband approached, she shot and killed him. The scenario revealed by this evidence is one from which one could easily infer that defendant’s fear of death or serious bodily harm was in fact reasonable. However, there is enough in the record to justify the conclusion that a reasonable doubt might not have necessarily arisen from the conflicting inferences. First, while abuse had occurred, the victim had never caused serious bodily harm to defendant. There was evidence of a fractured coccyx as a result of a fight, but the victim had merely pushed defendant down. Second, defendant went into the house, obtained a loaded gun, concealed it, and did not attempt to reveal its existence in order to repel her oncoming husband. A reasonable inference would be that defendant was lying in wait for an opportunity to use the gun as a response to an attempted beating. This form of “calculated self-defense” cannot logically be said to be a product of fear of death or serious bodily injury. Finally, the only account of the encounter came from defendant. It is quite conceivable that the jury simply did not believe either the factual account of defendant or that her testimony that she reasonably feared death or serious bodily injury. Matters of credibility are particularly within the province of the jury, especially those involving state of mind. Thus, I cannot agree that the evidence fails as a matter of law to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The majority’s citation of People v. White (1980), 87 Ill. App. 3d 324, 409 N.E.2d 73, is not persuasive. While we agree that one who is confronted with a person who has carried out his threats previously is entitled to a certain latitude of freedom in responding to subsequent threats, the cases are sufficiently factually dissimilar to justify distinction. There, the victim had previously attacked and cut the defendant with a knife. Furthermore, defendant knew victim to be extremely hostile due to an earlier incident involving an accidental discharge of defendant’s gun resulting in some tile fragments striking the victim. The defendant was in his own home when the victim intruded. Finally, events there occurred rather suddenly so that opportunity for reasonable assessment of possible danger was impossible. Here the most salient, uncontroverted fact in evidence is that defendant retrieved and concealed a loaded gun. Her allegedly reasonable belief that her husband was armed was unfounded and disbelieved by the jury. Thus, we believe that a reversal on the authority of White is not justified. The court also finds that the prosecutor’s argument to the jury constituted reversible error. Keeping in mind the standard that improper argument justified reversal only when the statements result in substantial prejudice or serve no purpose other than to inflame the jury (People v. Terry (1984), 99 Ill. 2d 508, 460 N.E.2d 746), an analysis reveals that no reversible error was committed. The statements cited by the majority were all clearly examples of improper argument. However, in a case such as this, it is doubtful that any substantial prejudice resulted. The issue in the case (whether defendant’s belief that she was in danger of serious bodily harm or death was reasonable under the circumstances) is straightforward enough that attempts by the prosecutor to inject irrelevant or distracting matter could not sway the jurors from the fundamental question before them. It is my opinion that the jurors resolved this question in favor of the People without regard to the improper argument of counsel. I agree that the second paragraph of the circumstantial evidence instruction was properly refused.