Court Opinion

ID: 9520079
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:31:01.207352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:30.540906
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE REARDON, specially concurring: I specially concur so as to reflect my agreement with the result reached by the majority. I part company with them only in the route which they travel to reach that result. My disagreement is perhaps a narrow one. First, I agree with their analysis of Coleman v. Alabama (1970), 399 U.S. 1, 26 L. Ed. 2d 387, 90 S. Ct. 1999, and People v. Bolden (1978), 59 Ill. App. 3d 32, 374 N.E.2d 1307, where the benefits of the presence of counsel at a preliminary hearing are described. The majority also correctly represents that Moore v. Illinois (1977), 434 U.S. 220, 54 L. Ed. 2d 424, 98 S. Ct. 458, held that the accused’s right to counsel was violated when, at trial, the prosecution was permitted to introduce testimony of the victim that she had identified the defendant as her assailant at a preliminary hearing at which the accused had appeared without counsel. However, in paraphrasing the footnote to Moore at page 435 of that opinion, following the listing of the requests and steps that counsel, if present, could have taken, the majority omits the sentence that provides an understanding of their opinion. The omitted sentence is as follows: “Because it is in the prosecution’s interest as well as the accused’s that witnesses’ identifications remain untainted, see Wade, supra, at 238,18 L Ed 2d 1149, 87 S Ct 1926, we cannot assume that such requests would have been in vain.” (Moore, 434 U.S. 220, 230 n.5, 54 L. Ed. 2d 424, 435 n.5, 98 S. Ct. 458, 465 n.5.) From this language I can merely conclude that the Supreme Court did not wish to use the Moore case as the vehicle to volunteer their opinion on procedures that had not been used in the case. The preliminary hearing should not be abused by permitting it to become an exercise in discovery or what in lawyer parlance is known as a “fishing expedition.” By the same token a preliminary hearing should not be permitted to appear as only a ritualistic compliance with the prosecution’s obligation to establish that there is probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed and that the defendant has perpetrated that offense. I trust that no implication will flow from the decision in this case that a preliminary hearing in Illinois is anything less than the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedings against a defendant. It is and must be viewed as the beginning stage of the judicial process to seek out the truth. I agree with the majority that the line of questioning which defense counsel was prevented from pursuing has only peripheral bearing on the question of probable cause and that in the framework of this case the limitation on cross-examination does not demonstrate any deprivation of the right to effective assistance of counsel.