Court Opinion

ID: 9724810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:15:11.736415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:10:45.117482
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RYAN, specially concurring: I concur in the holding and the reasoning of the majority opinion. I write briefly in this special concurrence for the purpose of discussing waiver and the term “procedural default,” which appears in the majority opinion. In the past, this court has not used the term “procedural default,” but has used the term “waiver” in referring to situations where the procedural default concept would be more appropriate; that is, when considering the effect of a failure to object at trial on the right to raise an issue on review. See People v. Carlson (1980), 79 Ill. 2d 564, 576; People v. Green (1979), 74 Ill. 2d 444, 453-54 (Ryan, J., specially concurring). Waiver is an intelligent relinquishment of a known right of a privilege. (Johnson v. Zerbst (1938), 304 U.S. 458, 464, 82 L. Ed. 1461, 1466, 58 S. Ct. 1019, 1023.) Procedural default, on the other hand, relates to a failure by counsel to comply with certain procedural requirements which results in the forfeiture of the right to raise error on appeal. For a scholarly, detailed discussion of procedural default in Illinois, see Wangerin, “Plain Error” and “Fundamental Fairness”: Toward a Definition of Exceptions to the Rules of Procedural Default, 29 De Paul L. Rev. 753 (1980). The case now before us involves procedural default, and not waiver. The dissent quotes language from the Supreme Court, stating “ ‘courts indulge in every reasonable presumption against waiver’ of fundamental constitutional rights,” citing Johnson v. Zerbst (1938), 304 U.S. 458, 464, 82 L. Ed. 1461, 1466, 58 S. Ct. 1019, 1023, and People v. Haskell (1968), 41 Ill. 2d 25, 31. These cases involved questions of waiver, and not the forfeiture of the right to raise an issue by virtue of failing to comply with certain procedural requirements. Thus, the quoted language in the dissent and the citations are not relevant to the question now before this court. (After I circulated this specially concurring opinion, Justice Simon altered his dissent and removed the quoted language and citations which I have referred to above as being not relevant to the question now before this court. Because this court has used the term “waiver” as including two different concepts, and because I feel that it is important that we recognize the distinctions mentioned in this paragraph, I have elected not to alter this concurring opinion following the removal of the irrelevant material from the dissent.) If, by failure to object at trial, some evidence which may be constitutionally objectionable goes to the jury, we have a “waiver” of trial error by virtue of procedural default. This court has held that through procedural default (waiver), errors that may have occurred at trial are forfeited and may not be raised on review, even though they may have involved constitutional questions. (See People v. Green (1979), 74 Ill. 2d 444, 453-54 (Ryan, J., specially concurring); People v. Precup (1978), 73 Ill. 2d 7, 16; People v. Pickett (1973), 54 Ill. 2d 280.) In fact, if there was no objection for the court to overrule and the court had no opportunity to pass on the admissibility of the evidence, it can be argued that there was no error, unless the doctrine of plain error is involved.