Court Opinion

ID: 9523714
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:46:00.460126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:07:22.349107
License: Public Domain

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION ON DENIAL OF REHEARING JUSTICE REINHARD delivered the opinion of the court: Defendant’s petition for rehearing again maintains that the waiver doctrine should not apply to the constitutional issue raised. For the reasons set forth in our opinion, we reject this viewpoint in the particular case before us. We feel compelled, however, to address an additional argument made by defendant which assails our “uneven application of the waiver doctrine,” and cites our recently filed opinion in People v. McNeal (1983), 120 Ill. App. 3d 625, wherein we declined to apply the waiver rule to a constitutional issue not raised in the trial court.  We point out that the constitutional issue raised in McNeal was neither the same constitutional issue before us here nor did the question involve an alleged procedural infirmity in the statute’s enactment. We also stated in McNeal that we would decline to apply the waiver rule where a substantial question of constitutionality is raised, which, if sustained, would make void the statute under which defendants were charged and convicted. As we indicated in our original opinion herein, although a reviewing court may ignore the waiver rule in the interest of substantial justice, “we are not so compelled under the circumstances described above and from our review of the nature ■ of the claimed constitutional question.” (Emphasis added.) Thus, we did give consideration to the substance of the arguments of the unconstitutionality of the statute involved here, but found they did not merit further discussion nor disregard of the waiver rule. We do not believe that the appellate and supreme courts of this State are obliged to render an opinion on the merits for all assertions of unconstitutionality of a criminal statute raised for the first time on review irrespective of the substance of the particular argument. See, e.g., People v. Myers (1981), 85 Ill. 2d 281, 290-91, 426 N.E.2d 535. Accordingly, we adhere to our original opinion and deny the petition for rehearing. LINDBERG and UNVERZAGT, JJ., concur.