Court Opinion

ID: 9707901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:24:14.102458+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:39.643353
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE RYAN, concurring in the decision: Although I concur in the result reached in the court’s opinion, I cannot agree with the reasoning supporting that result. I specifically do not agree that our Rule 402(a)(2) was violated prior to the defendant’s first plea of guilty. That rule requires only substantial compliance. Since the plea was a negotiated plea and the State had not requested the death penalty, the defendant was properly admonished as to the maximum penalty that could be imposed (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 1005 — 8—2(a)(1)). I also do not believe that due process required that the defendant be admonished that the State would seek the death penalty if the defendant withdrew his negotiated guilty plea. If the original admonishment under Rule 402 was defective, the defects were not relevant to this case because the defendant was fully and accurately admonished before he entered his nonnegotiated plea of guilty. I do feel that, for the reasons stated below, the defendant’s due process right was violated, as well as his rights under the eighth amendment of the Federal Constitution. The defendant, citing North Carolina v. Pearce (1969), 395 U.S. 711, 23 L. Ed. 2d 656, 89 S. Ct. 2072, and Blackledge v. Perry (1974), 417 U.S. 21, 40 L. Ed. 2d 628, 94 S. Ct. 2098, argues that the potential for vindictiveness which accompanied the State’s Attorney’s decision to ask for the death penalty following the withdrawal of the defendant’s original guilty pleas violated the due process clause. However, the State points out that in North Carolina v. Pearce and Blackledge v. Perry, the defendants had not withdrawn from negotiated pleas of guilty but the increased penalty was requested following the defendants having availed themselves of the lawful methods provided for challenging their convictions. The State cites Bordenkircher v. Hayes (1978), 434 U.S. 357, 54 L. Ed. 2d 604, 98 S. Ct. 663, in which case the Supreme Court noted that distinction and stated: “In those cases [Pearce and Perry] the Court was dealing with the State’s unilateral imposition of a penalty upon a defendant who had chosen to exercise a legal right to attack his original conviction — a situation ‘very different from the give-and-take negotiation common in plea bargaining between the prosecution and defense, which arguably possess relatively equal bargaining power.’ Parker v. North Carolina, 397 U.S. 790, 809 (opinion of Brennan, J.). *** *** [I] n the ‘give-and-take’of plea bargaining, there is no such element of punishment or retaliation so long as the accused is free to accept or reject the prosecution’s offer.” (Bordenkircher v. Hayes (1978), 434 U.S. 357, 362-63, 54 L. Ed. 2d 604, 610-11, 98 S. Ct. 663, 667-68.) The court held in Bordenkircher that due process was not violated when the prosecutor threatened during plea negotiations to have, and subsequently did have, the accused indicted on a more serious charge for not pleading guilty to the offense which was originally charged. These cases which I have discussed did not involve the death penalty, and for this reason are not helpful in deciding the case now before this court. The death penalty is such a different penalty that the logic and reasoning of the court in applying other penalties are of little help in justifying the imposition of the ultimate penalty. We would not be on sound footing in following the rationale of these cases in determining the due process issue as it relates to the imposition of the death penalty. In considering any case involving the penalty of death, one must look to the rationale of the Supreme Court in deciding the validity of death penalty statutes both on their face and as applied. These cases have generally analyzed and determined the issues presented on the basis of the proscription of the eighth amendment to the Federal constitution; however, I perceive that a statute, valid on its face, as this court has heretofore determined our death penalty statute to be (People ex rel. Carey v. Cousins (1979), 77 Ill. 2d 531), could be applied in such a manner as to constitute a due process violation, as well as cruel and unusual punishment proscribed by the eighth amendment. Following the rationale of the Supreme Court in the death penalty cases hereafter discussed, I conclude that the imposition of the death penalty on the defendant, under the facts of this case, constitutes a violation of the due process clause of both the State and Federal constitutions, as well as cruel and unusual punishment proscribed by the eighth amendment of the Federal Constitution. The imposition of the death penalty in this case would constitute an arbitrary application of the statute, unguided by any standards except the whim of the prosecutor. When the Illinois legislature enacted the current death penalty law for the offense of murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, pars. 9 — 1(a) through (j)), it specified that the death penalty is a possible sentence only if at least one of seven aggravating factors is found to exist by a judge or jury at a separate sentencing hearing following the defendant’s conviction of murder. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, pars. 9 — 1(g), (h).) However, the separate sentencing hearing to determine if the death penalty should be imposed can only be held “ [w] here requested by the State.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 9 — 1(d).) Since the request of the State’s Attorney is a condition precedent to the imposition of the death sentence, if not requested, the death sentence can never be applied. Under the facts of this case, when the State’s Attorney negotiated a guilty pleas from the defendant in exchange for a 60-year sentence on the murder charge, death was not a possible penalty since it could not be imposed without the State’s Attorney’s request for a penalty hearing. The prosecutor, having exercised the discretion vested in him by statute, informed the court, the defendant and the public that death was not an appropriate penalty in this case and the court, by concurring in the negotiated plea, confirmed this conclusion. However, within three months the prosecutor decided that death was an appropriate penalty and requested the penalty hearing, which activated the statutory machinery ultimately enabling the court to sentence the defendant to death. The defendant was the same; the offense was the same; no new evidence had surfaced; and the conviction was obtained in the same way, by a plea of guilty. Now, just three months later, the appropriate penalty, the price tag, for this offense was no longer 60 years, but death. The prosecutor explained to the court: “[A] nd prosecutors, your Honor, make decisions. Somebody has to. And we make mistakes. Mine was in not seeking the death penalty earlier. I was wrong then. I am right now.” If such drastic variances in penalties recommended by the same State’s Attorney for the same offense to be imposed on the same defendant can be attributed to a mistake in judgment or evaluation, it is, of course, possible that the latter judgment was the mistaken one, which another evaluation by the State’s Attorney would make evident. From the record, it appears that the prosecutor may have changed his mind more than once as to the penalty to be sought. At the sentencing hearing the defendant’s counsel, in argument to the court, stated that on June 23, several months prior to the negotiated plea, the State’s Attorney told the News Democrat he was “going to seek the death penalty” for defendant Walker but probably not for defendant Bainter. The State’s Attorney, in responding to the argument of defense counsel, did not deny that he had made such a statement to the newspaper. Later, of course, he recommended a sentence of 60 years, and finally he again sought the penalty of death. In view of this vacillation and the admission of the State’s Attorney that mistakes are made, we naturally wonder if the recommendation of a sentence of 60 years was the result of the prosecutor’s conclusion that his prior opinion in June that death was an appropriate penalty was also a mistake. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), 408 U.S. 238, 309, 33 L. Ed. 2d 346, 390, 92 S. Ct. 2726, 2762, Mr. Justice Stewart, in a concurring opinion, stated: “These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.” Borrowing the analogy of Mr. Justice Stewart, I view the imposition or the withholding of the death penalty, depending upon whether or not the prosecutor thinks he made a mistake, as cruel and unusual in the same manner that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual. It has no rational basis and is founded upon no standards or guidelines. It is purely an arbitrary, capricious and freakish imposition of the penalty, in violation of the eighth amendment to the Federal Constitution and the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment of that constitution and of the Constitution of this State. Furman v. Georgia rendered invalid most State death penalty statutes, following which many States reenacted statutes authorizing the imposition of the death penalty. In 1976 the Supreme Court considered five of those statutes in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), 428 U.S. 153, 49 L. Ed. 2d 859, 96 S. Ct. 2909, Proffitt v. Florida (1976), 428 U.S. 242, 49 L. Ed. 2d 913, 96 S. Ct. 2960, Jurek v. Texas (1976), 428 U.S. 262, 49 L. Ed. 2d 929, 96 S. Ct. 2950, Woodson v. North Carolina (1976), 428 U.S. 280, 49 L. Ed. 2d 944, 96 S. Ct. 2978, and Roberts v. Louisana (1976), 428 U.S. 325, 49 L. Ed. 2d 974, 96 S. Ct. 3001. A majority of the court found the statutes to be valid in the first three cases while in the last two cases the maj ority of the court found the statutes did not comply with the eighth amendment requirement. In Lockett v. Ohio (1978), 438 U.S. 586, 57 L. Ed. 2d 973, 98 S. Ct. 2954, the opinion of the chief justice summarized the holdings of the many opinions filed in the five post -Furman cases. The Lockett opinion concluded that the court had held in those cases that there is a qualitative difference in the death penalty and punishment in noncapital cases. Although legislatures remain free to decide how much discretion should be reposed in a judge or jury in non-capital cases, this qualitative difference between death and other penalties calls for a greater degree of reliability when the death sentence is imposed. The Lockett opinion also distilled from the five post -Furman cases that all sentencing discretion need not be eliminated but it must be directed and limited so that the death penalty would be imposed in a more consistent and rational manner so that there would be a meaningful basis for distinguishing the cases in which it is imposed from those in which it is not. In Gardner v. Florida (1977), 430 U.S. 349, 51 L. Ed. 2d 393, 97 S. Ct. 1197, the court held that it is of vital importance to the defendant and to the community that any decision to impose the death sentence be, and appear to be, based on reason rather than caprice or emotion. I might add to this statement, or mistake. The mandate of these cases was clearly not followed in this case. Death is a drastic penalty. Its finality demands certainty in that the prosecutor’s decision to request a penalty hearing must have a rational basis. His explanation that his previous recommendation of a 60-year sentence was a mistake does not satisfy what the Supreme Court in the above cases has deemed essential. If death was the appropriate penalty in this case, the State’s Attorney should not have vacillated but should have sought it following the first guilty plea. Thus, it does not appear that there is a meaningful basis for distinguishing between the imposition of the death penalty on the second guilty plea and the foreclosing of it on the first, when nothing in the case had changed except that the prosecutor stated he made a mistake. The reasoning of this case does not necessarily apply to lesser penalties. The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized on several occasions that the guilty plea and the plea bargain are essential components of the country’s criminal justice system. (Santabello v. New York (1971), 404 U.S. 257, 30 L. Ed. 2d 427, 92 S. Ct. 495; Bordenkircher v. Hayes (1978), 434 U.S. 357, 54 L. Ed. 2d 604, 98 S. Ct. 663.) However, due to the qualitative difference in the death penalty there is a corresponding difference in the need for reliability in determining whether death is the appropriate punishment in a specific case. It is a denial of due process to subject the defendant facing death to the vacillation of the prosecutor’s office as was done in this case. When the prosecutor forgoes his right to seek the death penalty, enters into plea negotiations, and reaches an agreement that is acceptable to him and the court, notions of basic fairness and due process prevent him from seeking the death penalty at a later date absent a change in circumstances beyond a mere recognition that he made a mistake. For these reasons I would hold that the defendant’s eighth amendment rights as well as his due process rights were violated in the procedure leading up to the imposition of the death penalty in this case.