Court Opinion

ID: 9744274
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:59:04.223835+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:48.129896
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE NASH, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. While I find no fault with the general analysis of the sentencing rules and considerations made by the majority, I do not agree with its conclusions that defendant’s 25-year sentence was neither excessive or unreasonably disparate from the six-year sentence of codefendant. It seems apparent the trial court gave little or no consideration to the requirement that it balance the seriousness of the offense with defendant’s potential for rehabilitation and, in my view, there are insufficient grounds in this record to support the difference in punishments imposed. Compare People v. Rosa (1982), 111 Ill. App. 3d 384; People v. Bares (1981), 97 Ill. App. 3d 728. It is, of course, people who are sentenced, essentially based upon consideration of their good and bad conduct in the past, what they did in the present case and what they may do in the future after completion of sentence. It appears here that the trial court concentrated entirely upon the purity of the drugs involved in the offense to which defendant pleaded guilty; while that is a proper factor to take into account, it should not be considered dispositive. I would reduce defendant’s sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment and remand for imposition of a fine.