Court Opinion

ID: 9518696
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:59:24.981912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:52.088832
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE O’MALLEY, specially concurring: I concur in the holding, but disagree that this is an appropriate case to reach the question of whether to create an “admonition exception” to the Reed waiver rule. The defendant claims that he received ineffective assistance of counsel on the basis that, inter alia, his counsel failed to file a written postsentencing motion that would have preserved defendant’s right to appeal his sentence. We are required to address the ineffective assistance of counsel claim, which in turn requires us to address the appropriateness of defendant’s sentence. I agree with the majority that the record unequivocally demonstrates that the trial judge appropriately considered the aggravating and mitigating factors. In my view, the sentence is clearly not excessive and thus not an abuse of discretion. In so holding, we reach the merits of defendant’s sentence claim, thus mooting the waiver issue. See Bailey, 311 Ill. App. 3d at 270 (holding that defendant waived any objection to his sentence by failing to file a postsentencing motion and that there was no other basis on which to review the sentence such as an ineffective assistance of counsel claim). Justice Inglis specially concurred in Bailey, suggesting that the supreme court review Rule 605(a) because it is misleading and unjust. Bailey, 311 Ill. App. 3d at 270-71 (Inglis, J., specially concurring). I also respectfully suggest supreme court review of Rule 605(a) for the additional reason that defendants will simply, and rather compellingly, claim ineffective assistance of counsel when counsel fails to file a postsentencing motion but a notice of appeal regarding the sentence is filed. We will routinely have to consider the merits of the defendant’s underlying sentence objection as we do in this case, thus thwarting the purpose of section 5 — 8—1(c) of the Unified Code of Corrections that objections to sentences be addressed first to the trial court.