Court Opinion

ID: 9711493
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:33:06.164682+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:05.515496
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, concurring in part and dissenting in part: The majority excludes evidence of a murder scheme between defendant and jailhouse informant Thomas Dye, whereby defendant would kill a witness in Dye’s case in exchange for an alibi in his own. The majority holds that this evidence is more prejudicial than probative. I disagree. Evidence is excluded only if its prejudicial effect substantially outweighs its probative value. People v. Illgen, 145 Ill. 2d 353, 365 (1991). The prejudicial effect of the evidence of the plan did not substantially outweigh its probative value; in fact, this evidence is highly probative. The conversation involving the scheme was admitted at trial to place defendant’s confession in context and to rebut defendant’s contention that he was unable to reason and communicate coherently because of medication he was taking. The conspiracy between defendant and Dye is highly probative in establishing these two points, and although other conversations between defendant and the informant were admitted, none were as probative as the ones in which defendant and Dye formed their plan. First, no other exchange explains why defendant confessed to Dye: it was to assuage Dye’s doubts that defendant was capable of performing his promise to murder the witness in Dye’s case. Without this information, defendant’s reason for confessing, and thus the confession itself, remains mysterious and suspect. Second, this evidence was crucial to rebut defendant’s argument that his reasoning was altered by medication taken while in prison. Even though several hours of other conversations between defendant and Dye were admitted, no other discussions so fully establish that defendant was coherent and able to reason as the ones where defendant and Dye concocted their detailed scheme. This evidence demonstrates that defendant’s conversation was not merely drug-induced bravado; rather, it was careful, calculated and indicative of someone unaffected by medication. The admissibility of evidence at trial is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be overturned absent an abuse of that discretion. Illgen, 145 Ill. 2d at 364. Such abuse of discretion will be found only where the trial court’s decision was arbitrary, fanciful, or one that no reasonable person would make. Illgen, 145 Ill. 2d at 364. That standard has not been met here, as it is clear that a reasonable person could find the disputed evidence more probative than prejudicial. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted the evidence, and the evidence should not be excluded now. I agree, however, that the evidence concerning the hearsay testimony of the victim’s wife should be excluded, and that to allow such evidence was not harmless error. Therefore, defendant should be granted a new trial, but at this new trial evidence regarding his conspiracy with Dye should once again be admitted. JUSTICES MILLER and McMORROW join in this partial concurrence and partial dissent.