Court Opinion

ID: 9712227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:49:30.112872+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:11.059172
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KILBRIDE, also dissenting: I respectfully dissent, joining parts I and II of Justice McMorrow’s dissent. I also write separately, however, because I believe there is another, even more critical, basis for rejecting the majority’s decision to overrule our established precedent in People v. Klingenberg, 172 Ill. 2d 270 (1996). In addition to its unwarranted abandonment of the fundamental principles of stare decisis, the majority has unjustifiably elected to address the question of Klingenberg's continued viability despite its acknowledgment of an alternative basis for reviewing this appeal. 207 Ill. 2d at 129. This alternative basis is the appellate court’s holding that the conviction for mob action was not legally inconsistent with the aggravated battery acquittal. See 207 Ill. 2d at 127. This issue was argued by the parties, but the majority has chosen to bypass it altogether in favor of the State’s alternative argument, asking us to overrule our prior case law in the absence of any rationale even vaguely approaching “good cause,” “special justification,” or “compelling reason[ ]” (207 Ill. 2d at 153, 157, 161 (McMorrow, C.J., dissenting, joined by Freeman and Kilbride, JJ.)). See 207 Ill. 2d at 132-33. Because I believe that this case can be, and should have been, analyzed on an entirely different basis, as argued by both parties and properly ruled on by the appellate court, the State’s alternative argument should not have been reached on its merits. The appellate court’s holding that the verdicts are not legally inconsistent is correct and dispositive of the principle issue raised by the parties. Under these circumstances, the majority’s reconsideration of Klingenberg is both unnecessary and unwise (see 207 Ill. 2d at 152-54 (McMorrow, C.J., dissenting, joined by Freeman and Kilbride, JJ.)). For this reason, I write separately, as well as join in parts I and II of Justice McMorrow’s dissent. I decline to join part III of that dissent because the parties did not raise or argue the issue of harmless error review, and it is unnecessary to the disposition of this appeal.