Court Opinion

ID: 9738069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:41:51.12337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:03.559994
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE CLARK, specially concurring: I concur only upon the basis of stare decisis. The wording of this statute is nearly identical to the wording of the California statute deemed substantially similar in People v. Guest (1986), 115 Ill. 2d 72. As I said at the time in my dissent in Guest, I am not convinced that “implied malice” murder, defined as “hardness of heart, cruelty, wickedness of disposition, recklessness of consequence, and a mind dispassionate of social duty,” can be equated with knowing murder under our statute; and I further believe that the lack of a capital penalty for second degree murder under both statutes is also a significant difference. However, since my position has been rejected once, and since the Rhode Island and California statutes are essentially identical, I see no point in continuing to dissent on this issue. Stare decisis is not an absolute. Changing times and circumstances may convince us, in appropriate cases, to overrule past precedent. I cannot in good conscience, however, argue for the overruling of a case written in ink which is not yet dry. Since I cannot, I specially concur.