Court Opinion

ID: 9729345
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:32:35.814172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:57.123374
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, specially concurring: I agree with the majority that Kuntu’s convictions should be affirmed in part and vacated in part and that we should vacate his sentence of death. I write separately because I would further hold that the State should not be permitted to seek the death penalty when the matter returns to the circuit court. 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 (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). It is therefore void and unenforceable. Because the death penalty law is unconstitutional, Kuntu must now be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. 720 ILCS 5/9 — l(j) (West 1994). Because he was convicted of murdering more than one victim, the term of his imprisonment must be natural life. 730 ILCS 5/5— 8 — 1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 1994).