Court Opinion

ID: 9529217
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:48:53.879805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:42.504321
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE BARRY, specially concurring. Although I concur in the result reached in Justice Alloy’s opinion, there are Several errors of the trial court, rather than only one, which require reversal of the cause and remandment to the Circuit Court of Warren County. These additional errors, the raising of which Justice Alloy finds the defendant waived, by my view irreparably compromised a fair trial. First, the prosecutor’s comments during closing argument concerning the burden of proof and the presumption of innocence, as well as the comments alluding to the defendant’s failure to testify, are so prejudicial that, in the interest of justice, a trial court should have granted a mistrial, even without an objection from the defendant’s counsel. Secondly, considering the lapse of time between the commencement of the trial and admonition of the jury, and the local news story, once the possibly prejudicial publicity in the only daily paper in the jury’s community was brought to the trial judge’s attention by the defendant, the trial judge not only should have renewed his admonition to the jury to disregard such publicity, but should have polled the jury to determine the prejudicial effect of the newspaper article. Since the trial judge presides over the proceeding to ensure the defendant a fair and impartial trial, the failure of a defense counsel to request that the jury be polled under these circumstances cannot justify either the trial court’s failure to poll the jury or our failure to signify the trial court’s action as contributing to plain error. Lastly, while admitting that the case law in Illinois clearly supports Justice Alloy’s position concerning the trial court allowing the sheriff to remain in the courtroom as an exception to the order excluding witnesses, I believe it is time to re-examine the rationale underlying this part of Illinois law. In highly populated areas of this State, the case load of the state’s attorney is such that the presence of a law enforcement official is necessary to assist the state’s attorney in prosecuting cases. On the other hand, in the downstate, rural areas, the caseload is much lighter and the state’s attorney can more easily familiarize himself with each case. Under the latter circumstances the usual excepting a law enforcement official from, the order excluding witnesses is unnecessary. Allowing such a law enforcement official to sit with the prosecutor, while wearing his uniform and all badges of authority, could easily result in prejudicing the jury because of the high regard with which law enforcement officials are regarded by the average citizen. Furthermore, this adds to his believability as a witness. The better rule would be that the state’s attorney has the burden of proving the need to have a law enforcement official present in the courtroom as opposed to enabling the law enforcement official who is a material witness to bolster his testimony by hearing all the other testimony given dining the trial. No party should have an automatic exception to the order excluding witnesses and the attendant advantages. Accordingly, I would have reversed for all these reasons as well as the failure of the trial court to allow redirect examination.