Court Opinion

ID: 9729062
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:25:43.867489+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:55.101428
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: I disagree with the Third District’s decision in Henderson, 334 Ill. App. 3d at 294, 777 N.E.2d at 1052, holding that a trial court abuses, or abdicates, its discretion when it refuses to consider a negotiated plea agreement presented by the parties beyond a deadline set by the court. I agree with Justice Holdridge’s dissent and the decisions from other jurisdictions that say that plea deadlines are an integral part of the court’s case-management authority and may be enforced at least where the parties have actual notice of the court’s practice and where exceptions to the deadline are permitted for good cause. Trial courts are rightly concerned with agreements made “on the courthouse steps” after the expense and inconvenience of assembling a jury for trial. It is completely appropriate for trial courts to tell defendants that negotiated pleas will not be accepted after a certain deadline, and if a defendant decides to plead after that time, only an open plea will be possible. What we have in this case, however, is not simply a trial court enforcing its deadline for accepting a negotiated plea. What we have in this case is a situation where defendant is in the Department of Corrections, defense counsel is unable to speak to defendant about the plea agreement until the night before the trial, and defendant is not allowed to accept the plea agreement until the trial date, at which time it is too late. The court was willing to consider plea agreements, but this defendant was never given an opportunity to present a plea agreement. I disagree with Justice Turner’s dissent. The supreme court in Henderson was not concerned with technicalities, such as whether the other charge had been drafted, whether the parties had fully disclosed the plea agreement’s terms to the trial court, whether there had been a request for a Rule 402 conference, or the like. Henderson refused to address the issue because nothing indicated the parties had actually reached an agreement or “that they ever attempted to present such an agreement to the circuit court.” (Emphasis added.) Henderson, 211 Ill. 2d at 92, 809 N.E.2d at 1225. The parties here clearly attempted to present an agreement to the circuit court. Justice Turner’s comments that the jury was present, that defendant had been granted four continuances, that the prosecutor had previously tendered the offer, and defense counsel had consulted with defendant on numerous occasions were clearly explained by defense counsel, without any contradiction. 351 Ill. App. 3d at 609-10.