Court Opinion

ID: 9737614
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:30:22.098942+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:00.269086
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON, dissenting: Article I, section 10, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 provides: “[n]o person shall be compelled in a criminal case to give evidence against himself ***.”Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 10. For the reasons set forth in my dissenting opinion in People v. Miller, 199 Ill. 2d 541 (2002), probation revocation proceedings are part of a “criminal case” within the meaning of that provision. Accordingly, the circuit court should not have required Lindsey to testify as an adverse witness at his probation revocation hearing. Because Lindsey’s privilege against self-incrimination was violated when he was compelled to testify, we should reverse the appellate court’s judgment affirming the order of the circuit court which revoked Lindsey’s probation and resentenced him. The cause should be remanded to the circuit court for a new probation revocation hearing. We should further hold that the circuit court may not require Lindsay to take the witness stand at the new hearing and that it is prohibited from making any presumptions based on the absence of testimony by him. See 725 ILCS 5/115 — 16 (West 2000) (in a criminal case or proceeding, a defendant’s “neglect to testify shall not create a presumption against [him]”). For the foregoing reasons, I dissent. JUSTICE KILBRIDE joins in this dissent.