Court Opinion

ID: 9859944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:00:28.179335+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:10:03.520899
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE SIMON, concurring in part and dissenting in part: The trial judge’s comments at the time of sentencing indicate that he considered matters in deciding the sentence which were not relevant to that determination. This probably explains the length of the sentence for a battery involving slight physical harm which the defendant — a 39-year-old, employed and married homeowner and father who had no previous record and served honorably in the armed forces of the United States in Korea during the time of combat there — was given. The offense with which the defendant was charged and of which he was found guilty was battery. However, comments of the court at the time of the sentencing hearing indicate that the trial judge might have been motivated, at least in part, by his expressed concern that the victim might also have been sexually molested had her companion not intervened. That the trial judge was thinking not only of what happened but of what might have happened is also suggested by his reluctance to postpone the filing of post-trial motions until a date after Labor Day, 1977. The conduct which resulted in the defendant’s being found guilty occurred 2 days after the Fourth of July 1977, and the judge’s comments suggest that he feared the defendant might repeat his conduct after another holiday weekend. The significance of the trial judge’s expressed concern over what might have happened is not lessened by his comment that, “This is not part of the case.” Perhaps the trial judge’s concern was not misplaced, but whatever sentence was imposed for the battery should have been based solely on what happened rather than on what might have happened and the harm the victim of the battery could have suffered. The defendant should have been sentenced for a battery which did not involve severe physical contact rather than for a sexual crime which did not occur. Thus, my study of the record convinces me that too much emphasis was placed on viewing the defendant as a sex offender and too little emphasis on attempting to determine whether his experience taught the defendant a lesson not to repeat his conduct and whether this defendant could best be restored to useful citizenship (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §11) by serving a shorter jail sentence or being placed on probation. Accordingly, my opinion is that this matter should be remanded to the circuit court for a new sentencing hearing.