Court Opinion

ID: 9540624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:18:27.27741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:00:05.150352
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, dissenting: I dissent. To hold that a defendant is required to seek leave to withdraw his plea of guilty in order to obtain review of the sentence imposed serves to defeat the purpose which Rule 604(d) was designed to accomplish. Rule 604(d) was adopted for the reason that a substantial percentage of the appeals in criminal cases were from judgments entered upon pleas of guilty and it was suggested that, given an opportunity so to do, the circuit courts would correct errors which might have occurred in the course of the taking of a plea of guilty and the entry of judgment. The records of the appellate court show that the rule has effected a substantial reduction in the number of appeals taken from pleas of guilty. The majority treats a negotiated plea as though it were a commercial transaction governed by principles of contract law and appears to look upon an appeal which seeks review of the sentence as an impermissible effort to rescind the agreement. I agree with the majority that “the State has a distinct interest to protect” (68 Ill. 2d at 266), but that interest is protected “ ‘whenever justice is done its citizens in the courts’ ” (Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 85, 87, 10 L. Ed. 2d 215, 219, 83 S. Ct. 1194, 1197). Protection of that interest requires that sentences be determined in accordance with the applicable constitutional and statutory provisions and that they be reviewable for error, not solely abuse of discretion. I have recently had occasion to point out the problems which arise when trial courts are vested with virtually nonreviewable discretion in sentencing. (See dissent in People v. Perruquet, 68 Ill. 2d 149.) To hold that a defendant implicitly “undertakes to accept the sentence of the court and to admit that the sentence is fair and justified under the circumstances of the case” (68 Ill. 2d at 266) flies in the face of the accepted principles applicable to the determination of the appropriate sentence in a criminal case. This holding would, in effect, bind a defendant to accept the sentence imposed regardless of arbitrariness, capriciousness, error in the presentence report, or any other defect upon which it might be based. A much more intelligent interpretation of the rule, and one more likely to achieve its purpose, would be to construe Rule 604(d) to permit the filing of a motion to vacate the sentence without requiring that the defendant seek leave to withdraw the plea of guilty.