Court Opinion

ID: 9529735
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:43.989087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:54.237406
License: Public Domain

DOVE, J. Specially concurring: If the order appealed from is subject to review by this court, I agree with the majority of this court and concur in affirming that order. It is my opinion, however, that the order is an interlocutory one and not appealable. As defined by the Code of Criminal Procedure: “Probation means the conditional and revocable release before sentence, and under the supervision of an officer of the trial court, of a person who has been found guilty of an offense.” (Ill Rev Stats 1963, c 38, § 102-18.) The applicable provision of the statute which counsel for appellant insists authorizes this appeal is § 121-9 (b) of the Criminal Code. This section provides: “On appeal the reviewing court may: (fo—1) reverse, affirm or modify the judgment or order from which the appeal is taken; (b-2) set aside, affirm or modify any or all of the proceedings subsequent to or dependent upon the judgment or order from which the appeal is taken; (b—3) reduce the degree of the offense of which the appellant was convicted ; (b-4) reduce the punishment imposed by the trial court; or (b—5) order a new trial if justice so requires.” The appeal referred to in this section is from the judgment of guilty entered prior to the admission of defendant to probation, which appeal is expressly granted by § 117-1 (b-d) of the Code. The punishment here referred to is that punishment imposed on the defendant by the trial court which pronounced the sentence following the court’s finding of guilt. It is not the commitment or confinement embraced in a discretionary order admitting a defendant to probation. The punishment imposed by the trial court to which this provision is applicable has reference to the penalty fixed by the law defining and inhibiting the Criminal Act, and the word punishment, as here used, is synonymous with the word penalty. (Featherstone v. People, 194 Ill 325, 334, 62 NE 684). In People v. Bardens, 394 Ill 511, 68 NE2d 710, the court after citing and quoting from the Featherstone case, supra, and People v. Jenkins, 322 Ill 33, 152 NE 549 says (pp 516-517): “Probation is a substitute for imprisonment. ... A sentence to imprisonment in the penitentiary cannot be synonymous with a grant of probation entitling the convicted defendant to escape a penalty of imprisonment.” The court continues (p 517): “As pertinently pointed out in Commonwealth v. Smith, 130 Pa S 536, 198 A 812, the court in deciding that an order of probation is not a sentence, commented: Tt delays the sentence and may result in the release of the defendant at the end of the probationary period, but until the conduct of the defendant has been such as to harmonize with the conditions of probation, the sentence is in abeyance. And on failure to perform the conditions the defendant may be sentencéd as provided in the act under which the indictment was drawn.’ It is nowhere in the act called, or referred to, as a sentence. . . . An examination of the provisions of Section 1 of the Probation Act as amended (citation), shows that the placing of the defendant on probation on such terms and conditions as the court may deem right and proper is regarded as a judgment, and the terms and conditions of probation are directed to be duly entered of record ‘as a part of the judgment in such case.’ But it is not a final judgment of sentence. ... It is rather an interlocutory judgment, in the nature of a conditional order placing the defendant under the supervision and control of the court, in a system of tutelage designed for his reformation (citations), to be followed by a final judgment of discharge, if the conditions of his probation are complied with (citation), or by a final judgment of sentence on his being brought before the court following a violation of the terms of his probation.” Supreme Court Rule 27, subpar (16) provides in part: “Where an appeal is taken . . . from an order admitting the defendant to probation, or from an order altering the conditions of probation, the sentence or order may be stayed by the trial court or the reviewing court, or a judge thereof.” (28 I112d xxvi.) It might be inferred from this language that an order admitting a defendant to probation was an appealable one, but the rule does not expressly so provide, and the statute limits an appeal (a) from a judgment of the trial court which alters the conditions of the probation order, or (b) from a judgment of the trial court terminating the probation. (Ill Rev Stats c 38, § 117-3 (e).) The statute expressly provides that a judgment of guilty shall be entered prior to the admission of defendant to probation, and it shall be a final judgment subject to review, under Article 121 of the Code. (Ill Rev Stats c38, §117-1 (d).) There is no statute or rule of court which expressly grants a review to a defendant where a defendant has made an application for probation and his application has been granted, and the cause continued during the period of probation. Had the General Assembly or the Supreme Court by rule intended that an appeal could be taken from a provision contained in an order admitting a defendant to probation, the General Assembly or the Supreme Court would have expressly so provided. This court in its former opinion has affirmed the judgment of the trial court finding appellant guilty of the criminal offense charged. Upon remandment by this court for a hearing in aggravation and mitigation, the directions of this court were followed, and at the conclusion of the hearing, the court imposed no sentence on defendant, as provided by law, for the offense he had been adjudged guilty of, but entered an order granting defendant’s application for probation and released Mm on probation for five years. The terms and conditions imposed by the court were authorized by the statute. In the absence of a statute expressly granting the right of review of a particular interlocutory decision, a case may not be taken to a r.eviewing court, and if “a court grants probation on the accused’s application and continues the cause during the period of probation, there is no final decision for review.” (15 ILP Criminal Law, § 843.) This was clearly the law prior to the effective date of the Criminal Code of 1963 and was so held in many cases. (People v. Kessler, 394 Ill 26, 67 NE2d 197; People v. Wheeler, 349 Ill 230-234, 181 NE 623; People v. Miller, 317 Ill 33, 38, 39, 147 NE 396; People v. Brown, 392 Ill 519, 523, 64 NE2d 739; People v. Bonheim, 307 Ill 316, 321, 138 NE 627; and People v. Pelikan, 6 Ill2d 275, 277, 128 NE2d 741.) In People v. Ficarrotta, 385 Ill 108, 111, 52 NE2d 165, it is said: “An accused may not ask the court to proceed in a given manner and then assign error in a court of review the ruling or action which he procured.” That is exactly what appellant seeks to do here. He made an application for probation. His application was granted and an order was entered admitting him to probation. He and his counsel knew that if granted probation as requested, that the statute set forth the mandatory and the discretionary conditions which the order he desired and requested must or could contain. By this appeal he seeks a review of only one condition of the order which he moved the trial court to enter. Under the Federal Practice, the trial court imposes a sentence and may then suspend that sentence and admit the defendant to probation. Such an order has been held to be final and appealable. (Korematsu v. United States, 319 US 432, 63 S Ct 1124, 87 L Ed 1497.) Our Supreme Court has cited this case with approval and referred to its “persuasive reasoning” (People v. Sims, 32 Ill2d 591, 208 NE2d 569), but, as said in People v. Smith, 62 Ill App2d 73, 210 NE2d 574, not all the “guideposts provided by earlier decisions need be abandoned,” even though the new Code of Criminal Procedure has made significant changes in the law. Counsel for appellee has made no motion to dismiss this appeal or questioned the right of appellant to appeal from a portion of an order admitting defendant to probation, but has joined in this appeal and filed a brief. There is, however, no provision in the new Criminal Code, or rule of the Supreme Court, expressly granting this appeal. The order is interlocutory and not final. The cause is pending in the trial court and the proper order for this court to enter is to dismiss the appeal.