Court Opinion

ID: 9860325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:18:11.656027+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:21:07.718542
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HARRISON, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree that the circuit court was correct in denying Daniels’ motion to dismiss count VI of the State’s indictment. Contrary to the majority, however, I believe that the State should be barred from conducting a capital sentencing hearing in the event defendant is convicted of first degree murder on retrial. For the reasons set forth in my dissent in People v. Bull, 185 Ill. 2d 179 (1998), this state’s present death penalty law does not meet the requirements of the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amends. VIII, XIV) or article I, section 2, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). Accordingly, if convicted on retrial, Daniels should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment.