Court Opinion

ID: 9861687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:19:26.459925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:49.510375
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree that Williams’ convictions should not be disturbed. In my view, however, her sentence of death cannot be allowed to stand. For the reasons set forth in my partial concurrence and partial dissent in People v. Bull, 185 Ill. 2d 179 (1998), the Illinois death penalty law is void and unenforceable because it violates the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amends. VIII, XIV) and article I, section 2, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). Williams’ sentence of death should therefore be vacated, and she should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. 720 ILCS 5/9 — l(j) (West 1994). Because Williams was found guilty of murdering more than one victim, the term of her imprisonment must be natural life. 730 ILCS 5/5 — 8—l(a)(l)(c)(ii) (West 1994).