Court Opinion

ID: 9860003
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:06:37.269318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:11:05.891235
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KILBRIDE, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the majority because I believe that removing an element of the crime from consideration by the jury can never be subject to a harmless error analysis. The case at bar presents this court with the same issue posed to the United States Supreme Court in Apprendi: other than the fact of a prior conviction, whether every fact necessary to increase the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to the trier of fact and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In Apprendi, the United States Supreme Court answered this question affirmatively. Today’s decision sharply departs from Apprendi. The majority acknowledges the State’s concession that it was an Apprendi violation for the trial judge to enhance defendant’s sentence based on a finding that the victim was a member of defendant’s household. 203 Ill. 2d at 361. The majority circumvents Apprendi using United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 152 L. Ed. 2d 860, 122 S. Ct. 1781 (2002), and Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 144 L. Ed. 2d 35, 119 S. Ct. 1827 (1999). Nonetheless, neither Cotton nor Neder justifies the conclusion drawn by the majority. The United States Supreme Court’s holding in Cotton is not applicable to a harmless error analysis. In Cotton, the defendant did not timely object to the State’s failure to allege enhancement factors in the indictment. Without a contemporaneous objection, the defendant waived his Apprendi argument. Thus, plain error was the only method for the Cotton defendant to invoke the Apprendi holding. In Cotton, the United States Supreme Court specifically noted that “ ‘a constitutional right may be forfeited in criminal as well as civil cases by the failure to make timely assertion of the right.’ ” Cotton, 535 U.S. at 634, 152 L. Ed. 2d at 869, 122 S. Ct. at 1787, quoting Yakus v. United States, 321 U.S. 414, 444, 88 L. Ed. 834, 859, 64 S. Ct. 660, 677 (1944). In this case, defendant raised and preserved his Apprendi challenge at the earliest opportunity, the sentencing hearing. Accordingly, the present case is distinguishable from Cotton. Turning to Neder, I am persuaded that Justice Scalia’s partial dissent in Neder (see Neder, 527 U.S. at 30-40, 144 L. Ed. 2d at 60-66, 119 S. Ct. at 1844-48 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part, joined by Souter and Ginsburg, JJ.)) is embodied in the Apprendi holding and, thus, although Apprendi did not expressly overrule Neder, the Apprendi holding is so fundamentally inconsistent with Neder that Neder can no longer be followed. I recognize, as does the majority and Justice Freeman’s concurring opinion, that it is the prerogative of the Supreme Court to overrule its own decisions. See Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 237, 138 L. Ed. 2d 391, 423, 117 S. Ct. 1997, 2017 (1997). Nonetheless, that rule does not help to harmonize what Justice Freeman terms the “peculiarity]” between the Apprendi and Neder holdings. In my mind, the holdings are more than just peculiar. They are irreconcilable. After all, the question posed to the Court in both Neder and Apprendi was essentially the same: must every element of a crime be submitted to the trier of fact and proved beyond a reasonable doubt? In Neder, the Court said “no.” After Neder, in Apprendi, the Court said “yes.” Left with the choice to follow one of two conflicting opinions of the Supreme Court, we quite simply should follow the most recent of the two. In this post-Apprendi case, the majority sanctions the removal of one element from consideration by the jury. What would the majority have done if, in this case, two elements had been taken away from the jury? What about three? Four? I cannot discern how “taking one of the elements of the crime away from the jury” is different from “taking all of them away — since failure to prove one, no less than failure to prove all, utterly prevents conviction.” (Emphases in original.) Neder, 527 U.S. at 33, 144 L. Ed. 2d at 62, 119 S. Ct. at 1845 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part, joined by Souter and Ginsburg, JJ.). A directed verdict against a defendant would be per se reversible no matter how overwhelming the unfavorable evidence (Rose v. Clark, 478 U.S. 570, 578, 92 L. Ed. 2d 460, 471, 106 S. Ct. 3101, 3106 (1986)), and what the majority has done here is tantamount to affirming a directed verdict for the State. “[T]he fundamental meaning of the jury-trial guarantee of the Sixth Amendment is that all facts essential to imposition of the level of punishment that the defendant receives— whether the statute calls them elements of the offense, sentencing factors, or Mary Jane — must be found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.” Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 610, 153 L. Ed. 2d 556, 578, 122 S. Ct. 2428, 2444 (2002) (Scalia, J., concurring, joined by Thomas, J.). There are some constitutional errors that involve rights so basic to a fair trial that their infraction can never be subject to harmless error analysis. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 23, 17 L. Ed. 2d 705, 710, 87 S. Ct. 824, 827-28 (1967); Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 308, 113 L. Ed. 2d 302, 330, 111 S. Ct. 1246, 1264 (1991). I believe that an Apprendi violation is the type of error that defies harmless error review. For these reasons, I would remand the cause for a new sentencing hearing. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.