Court Opinion

ID: 9862494
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 01:15:48.495368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:25:39.819083
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE BILANDIC, concurring: The majority concludes that the defendant’s conviction must be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial because the defendant was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel when his attorney on direct appeal failed to challenge the voluntary manslaughter and murder instructions given at trial. I concur with the majority’s disposition of this appeal. I write separately for two reasons: first, to clarify the standard of review applicable in this appeal; and second, to distance myself from several statements in the majority opinion which, I believe, improperly suggest that the defendant was somehow victimized by Officer Murrin. As stated, the defendant claims that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel on direct appeal because his counsel failed to challenge on direct appeal, certain jury instructions that this court condemned in People v. Reddick (1988), 123 Ill. 2d 184. Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are evaluated under the two-part standard set forth in Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 104 S. Ct. 2052. Under that standard, the defendant here must prove, first, that his counsel was incompetent in failing to raise the Reddick error, and second, that he suffered prejudice because of counsel’s failure to raise the Reddick error on direct appeal. I concur with the majority’s finding that the defendant has satisfied the first prong of the Strickland standard. The real question in this appeal is whether the defendant has satisfied the second or “prejudice” prong of the Strickland standard. Under this prong, the defendant must establish “a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” (Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 80 L. Ed. 2d at 698, 104 S. Ct. at 2068.) The defendant here claims that he was prejudiced by his attorney’s failure to raise the Reddick error on direct appeal, because this court would have reversed his conviction and granted him a new trial if the error had been called to its attention. In this regard, the majority appropriately notes that this court has specifically rejected the contention that every Reddick error necessitates an outright reversal of a defendant’s conviction and remandment for a new trial. In People v. Shields (1991), 143 Ill. 2d 435, 445, this court stated: “[W]e reject the defendants’ contention that the Reddick court’s description of the errors identified in that decision as 'grave’ (see Reddick, 123 Ill. 2d at 198) mandates automatic reversal of convictions arising from trials in which the defective jury instructions were used. Reddick itself counseled that the entire record must be examined in determining whether the jury was properly instructed. (Reddick, 123 Ill. 2d at 198.) Moreover, our subsequent decisions have recognized that the errors identified in Reddick may indeed be harmless in appropriate cases. See People v. Austin (1989), 133 Ill. 2d 118, 123-24; People v. Harris (1989), 132 Ill. 2d 366, 395.” Thus, under Shields, an instructional error that violates Reddick necessitates reversal of a defendant’s conviction and the grant of a new trial only when the reviewing court determines, in light of all of the evidence in the record, that the improper instructions were not harmless error. People v. Shields (1991), 143 Ill. 2d 435. The majority concludes that the improper jury instructions were not harmless error and that, therefore, the defendant was prejudiced by appellate counsel’s failure to raise the Reddick error on direct appeal. While I concur with the majority’s conclusion that the Reddick error was not harmless (and that the defendant was therefore prejudiced by appellate counsel’s failure to raise the Reddick issue), I strongly disagree with the majority’s misleading portrayal of the evidence produced at trial. In its analysis, the majority states that the "record reveals evidence which could have persuaded a properly instructed jury to find that the defendant had terminated his efforts to escape or avoid arrest by the officer, and that the defendant believed, perhaps unreasonably, that Officer Murrin was going to shoot him.” (162 Ill. 2d at 524.) The majority opinion then goes on to present a one-sided view of the evidence introduced at trial, relying almost exclusively upon the defendant’s own trial testimony. Upon reading the majority opinion, one is left with the impression that the defendant initially fled the officer but then experienced a sudden change of heart, stopped on his own initiative, surrendered, and was thereupon severely beaten by Officer Murrin, feared for his life, and then shot and killed the officer, believing such force was necessary and justified. For the record, I wish to point out that the evidence produced at trial and thoroughly discussed by this court in its opinion on direct appeal presents an entirely different picture of the incident in question. (See People v. Salazar (1988), 126 Ill. 2d 424.) In fact, the evidence established that at the time of the shooting, the defendant had a strong motive to elude arrest, as there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest, charging him with aggravated battery, a felony. The evidence also suggested that the defendant knew of the outstanding warrant, because the defendant had made plans prior to the shooting to leave the country and flee to Mexico. The evidence also established that the defendant was trained in both boxing and in martial arts. The evidence at trial established that the victim, Officer Murrin, was shot with his own gun. The State introduced the testimony of a witness who saw Officer Murrin chasing the defendant and overheard the scuffle between the defendant and the officer. The witness testified that he saw a young Hispanic man running down the alley with a police officer in pursuit. The police officer was carrying a gun in his right hand. A few second^ later, he heard someone say, "Stop fighting, damn it. I got you. You are under arrest.” The witness then heard three quick gunshots followed by a pause and two more gunshots. The witness then saw the defendant vault a fence while holding the gun in his right hand, and then come back over the fence without the gun. The witness testified that the defendant’s face did not have any unusual markings, bruises or blood on it. A neutron activation analysis revealed that Officer Murrin’s left hand was on or near the muzzle of the gun when it discharged and that the officer’s right hand could have been on or near the gun when it. discharged. The victim’s partner, Officer Ponce, testified that he heard five gunshots and then saw the defendant in the rear of a residence holding a gun at a 45-degree angle. Ponce yelled, "Halt, police.” The defendant looked over his right shoulder and then ran off. Ponce observed that the defendant did not have any debris or blood on him and did not observe anything unusual about the right side of the defendant’s face. An autopsy revealed that the victim had fresh bruises and abrasions on his right upper lip, a prominent scratch behind the right ear, scrapes and scratches on his left upper arm, on the back of his left arm and on his left forearm. The victim also had abrasions on the right upper arm, on the back of the right elbow, and on the front and back of his neck. Scratches were also found on the victim’s right knee and the back of the left knee. The autopsy also revealed that the victim had been shot five times: three times in the chest, once in the right ear and once in the center of his forehead. A forensic pathologist testified that the chest wounds were probably inflicted first because they produced a great deal of internal bleeding. The wound in the center of the forehead was inflicted later, because it was instantaneously fatal and would have prohibited the victim from producing significant internal bleeding. A forensic scientist testified that two of the chest wounds were inflicted from a distance of less than one inch, while the third chest wound was caused by a gunshot fired four to six feet from the victim. This court, on direct appeal, reviewed this evidence, along with the evidence discussed in the majority opinion. In affirming the defendant’s murder conviction, this court found that the evidence established that the defendant did not surrender to Officer Murrin, but instead, initiated a struggle in an attempt to prevent his arrest. This court found that the evidence showed that the defendant was the initial aggressor and the dominant figure in the struggle. This court also found that Officer Murrin received a beating in the struggle, while the defendant was left basically unscathed. (Salazar, 126 Ill. 2d at 451.) This court also noted that the defendant shot the officer, not once, but five times at close range, and then immediately fled the scene and, ultimately, the country. In light of this evidence, this court concluded that the "defendant did not act with any unreasonable belief that would justify his taking of the deceased’s weapon and shooting the victim five times at very close range. *** Except for defendant’s testimony, nothing in the record reveals that he acted in any other way but deliberately and intentionally to kill Officer Murrin.” Salazar, 126 Ill. 2d at 453-54. As one can see from the discussion of the trial evidence above, the majority’s statement that the record reveals evidence that "could have persuaded” a properly instructed jury to find the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter is misleading and one-sided, especially when one considers that most of this evidence was the defendant’s own trial testimony. While I find fault with the majority’s presentation of the evidence, I do agree that the defendant in this case presented some evidence of an unreasonable belief that deadly force was necessary. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Reddick error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Although Reddick was decided in June 1988, five months prior to the decision in the original appeal in this case, defendant’s appellate counsel did not cite Red-dick in that appeal. Reddick was a significant opinion in the field of criminal law. Defendant’s appellate counsel was not even aware of its existence. Had he been aware of Reddick and cited it, this court probably would have granted a new trial as it did in similar cases at that time. (See, e.g., Shields, 143 Ill. 2d at 447, 449, 452 (reversal and remandment required where it is not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that Reddick error was harmless).) In addition, the prosecution remained silent on the Reddick issue and this court did not raise it sua sponte. All of these circumstances persuade me to give the defendant a new trial. The facts of this case, however, are unique. Our holding here is not intended to diminish in any way our holding in Shields. In order to prevail, a defendant still must establish that a Red-dick error was not harmless error. Shields, 143 111. 2d at 445. For the reasons stated, I concur with the judgment of the majority. JUSTICE HEIPLE joins in this concurrence.