Court Opinion

ID: 9733166
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:55:53.293168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:38.996223
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, specially concurring: I agree that we should affirm dismissal of Orange’s second post-conviction petition and remand the cause to the circuit court so that it can proceed with the new sentencing hearing. I write separately because I would further hold that the State should not be permitted to seek the death penalty on remand. For the reasons 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 (111. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). It is therefore void and unenforceable, and Orange should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment (111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 9 — l(j)). Because Orange was convicted of murdering more than one victim, the term of imprisonment must be natural life. 111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 1005 — 8— 1(a)(1)(c).