Court Opinion

ID: 9714073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:30:00.725046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:23.118627
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: I fully concur in the court’s decision. I agree that defendant’s other-crimes-evidence argument must be rejected. As the majority states, the evidence against defendant would have been the same even if he had not been charged with robbery. Defendants are sometimes found guilty of some charges and not guilty of others. Sometimes defendants are found guilty of lesser-included offenses. The fact that the jury has heard additional evidence does not warrant reversal. I am uncomfortable with broad reliance on the “continuing narrative exception.” Sometimes that exception has been used, for example, to allow police officers to testify to everything they came across during their investigations. The exception should be applied cautiously. “ ‘The need for the evidence is slight, the likelihood of misuse great.’ ” People v. Cameron, 189 Ill. App. 3d 998, 1004, 546 N.E.2d 259, 263 (1989), quoting E. Cleary, McCormick on Evidence §249, at 734 (3d ed. 1984); see also People v. Sample, 326 Ill. App. 3d 914, 921, 761 N.E.2d 1199, 1205 (2001); People v. Warlick, 302 Ill. App. 3d 595, 599-600, 707 N.E.2d 214, 218 (1998).