Court Opinion

ID: 9723463
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:15:56.261215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:18:37.486293
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RYAN, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I dissent from that portion of the opinion which remands this case for a hearing on the question of whether defendant was afforded effective assistance of counsel. Initially, I voice my concern about the inordinate delay in this case. The crime was committed February 24, 1979. The defendant was arrested March 3, 1979. The original opinion in this court, affirming defendant’s conviction and sentence on direct appeal, was filed March 23, 1984. Thus, more than five years elapsed between the crime and the disposition of the case on direct appeal. But that was only the beginning. It has taken almost five more years for this case to wend its way back to this court on appeal in the post-conviction proceeding. The holding of the majority opinion sends the case back to the trial court for further proceedings, which, if adverse to the defendant, will be reviewed again by this court a year or more from now. If this court then affirms on this case’s third appearance here, 11 years or more after the crime was committed, the case will then start its journey through the Federal system. At some point before final judicial determination, Juan Caballero will probably expire from natural causes. We have so circumscribed our criminal procedure with due process concerns, and we so intently scrutinize the performance of counsel looking for something to support a claim of ineffective assistance, that our criminal process is hamstrung and a final resolution of these cases is difficult to achieve. The charge of ineffective assistance of counsel is fast becoming the most popular avenue through which convicted persons seek relief. Many of us felt, following the decision of Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 104 S. Ct. 2052, that the clear pronouncements of that case would decrease the number of cases in which such charges would be made. Instead, however, certain parts of that opinion, notably the two-pronged test of counsel’s deficient performance and the reasonable probability of a different result absent counsel’s deficient conduct, have become the focal point of the analysis of counsel’s conduct with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, and cases involving ineffective-assistance charges have proliferated. The importance of the Strickland holding lies not only in the announcement of the two-pronged test. Equally, if not more, important is the admonition of Strickland that deference should be given to on-the-spot decisions made by trial counsel, and that the temptation to second-guess these decisions simply because of an adverse result should be resisted. I can do no better than to quote these admonitions at length: “Judicial scrutiny of counsel’s performance must be highly deferential. It is all too tempting for a defendant to secondguess counsel’s assistance after conviction or adverse sentence, and it is all too easy for a court, examining counsel’s defense after it has proved unsuccessful, to conclude that a particular act . or omission of counsel was unreasonable. [Citation.] A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel’s challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time. Because of the difficulties inherent in making the evaluation, a court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action ‘might be considered sound trial strategy.’ ” Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668, 689, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 694-95, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 2065. Strickland warned against intrusive post-trial inquiry into counsel’s performance such as has been exhibited in the majority opinion in this case. Such an inquiry, and the willingness of the courts to participate, can only encourage and bring about second trials in almost every criminal case where the defendant has been convicted. It is the willingness of the courts to participate in such hindsight analysis that has encouraged the filing of so many charges of ineffective assistance of counsel. In this case, there have been three separate counsel: the first on the original trial, the second on appeal, and now a third represents the defendant in the post-conviction proceeding. In the post-conviction proceeding, both the conduct of the trial counsel and appellate counsel have been challenged on several grounds. Most of the majority opinion deals with analyzing these challenges. Most of these issues were simply judgment calls made by the trial attorney and should have been dealt with as such. In support of the above comments, I again quote at length from Strickland: “The availability of intrusive post-trial inquiry into attorney performance or of detailed guidelines for its evaluation would encourage the proliferation of ineffectiveness challenges. Criminal trials resolved unfavorably to the defendant would increasingly come to be followed by a second trial, this one of counsel’s unsuccessful defense. Counsel’s performance and even willingness to serve could be adversely affected. Intensive scrutiny of counsel and rigid requirements for acceptable assistance could dampen the ardor and impair the independence of defense counsel, discourage the acceptance of assigned cases, and undermine the trust between attorney and client. Thus, a court deciding an actual ineffectiveness claim must judge the reasonableness of counsel’s challenged conduct on the facts of the particular case, viewed as of the time of counsel’s conduct.” Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668, 690, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 695, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 2066. It appears that the majority opinion bases its belief that the post-conviction hearing petition requires a hearing on the fact that three potential witnesses, William Dillon, Grace Constable, and Reverend Douglas Moore, were not permitted to testify. According to the affidavits of these three potential witnesses, they were rejected by counsel because they did not oppose the death penalty in all cases. This is not a case where counsel did not investigate. The opinion holds that the rejection of those witnesses who were not contacted by counsel was probably justified. The basis of the holding that there should be a hearing focuses on the failure to call the three witnesses named above. Counsel had interviewed these witnesses, as well as others, and decided not to call them. He did present other witnesses, who presented defendant in a favorable light as a well-mannered, courteous student and neighbor, who liked to participate in sports. Counsel did not call other witnesses who, on cross-examination, could have detracted from that image, or who did not share the thesis of counsel’s game plan that the death penalty was wrong and should never be applied. These were choices counsel made after he had interviewed the witnesses defendant had offered. In Strickland v. Washington, the Court stated that “strategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable; and strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation.” Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668, 690-91, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 695, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 2066. As noted above, the majority opinion finds that counsel’s limitation of investigation was reasonable. The choice not to call as witnesses the three people named above, whom counsel had interviewed, was a strategic choice. Under the circumstances, the defendant must overcome the presumption that the challenged action might be considered sound trial strategy. “There are countless ways to provide effective assistance in any given case. Even the best criminal defense attorneys would not defend a particular crime in the same way.” (Strickland v. Washington (1984), 466 U.S. 668, 689, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 695, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 2065.) The Supreme Court stated in Burger v. Kemp (1987), 483 U.S. 776, 794, 97 L. Ed. 2d 638, 657, 107 S. Ct. 3114, 3126, in considering claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, “ ‘[w]e address not what is prudent or appropriate, but only what is constitutionally compelled.’ ” In United States v. Cronic (1984), 466 U.S. 648, 656, 80 L. Ed. 2d 657, 666, 104 S. Ct. 2039, 2045, a case decided the same day as Strickland v. Washington, the Supreme Court stated: “The right to the effective assistance of counsel is thus the right of the accused to require the prosecution’s case to survive the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing. When a true adversarial criminal trial has been conducted— even if defense counsel may have made demonstrable errors — the kind of testing envisioned by the Sixth Amendment has occurred.” (Emphasis added.) Individual members of this court, if representing the defense, may not have made the same choices that counsel made. The choices made by counsel, judged by the benefit of hindsight, may not have been the best avenues to pursue. However, these were strategic choices that counsel knowingly made, and they should not be disturbed. We simply cannot retry every case because the defendants are dissatisfied with the results of their trials and level charges of incompetence against their counsel. Our Post-Conviction Hearing Act authorizes the court to dismiss a petition if it is frivolous and patently without merit. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 122 — 2.1.) The Act also authorizes the State to move to dismiss the petition, which the court may grant or deny (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 122 — 5), and the Act provides for a hearing on the petition (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 122 — 6). However, this court has held that a post-conviction petition is not entitled to a hearing as a matter of right, but that a hearing should be conducted only when the petition makes a substantial showing of a violation of constitutional right. (People v. Silagy (1987), 116 Ill. 2d 357, 365; People v. Gaines (1984), 105 Ill. 2d 79, 91-92; People v. Curtis (1971), 48 Ill. 2d 25, 27.) In my opinion, under the analysis of the holding of Strickland v. Washington, the defendant did not make a substantial showing of ineffective assistance of counsel by the allegations of his petition and the affidavits filed in support thereof. Therefore, this court should not have remanded this case for a post-conviction petition hearing. The interminable trying and retrying of criminal cases should cease. At some point the judgment of the court must become final and the defendant must face the reality of his sentence. The majority opinion, in my view, will only encourage the filing of future charges of incompetence of counsel, which, if judged by the same standards of the majority opinion, will further prolong litigation. For these reasons, I dissent from the portions of the opinion above indicated.