Court Opinion

ID: 9819587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:28:16.422422+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:43.944384
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE COOK, dissenting: The key components of the May 1999 sentence were the 60-year extended term for attempt (first degree murder), the 60-year extended term for home invasion, and the consecutive 15-year prison term for residential burglary, which produced the 75-year total. We affirmed, one judge dissenting, but the supreme court told us we were wrong, that extended-term sentences could not be imposed by a judge in this case. Extended-term sentencing, requiring the factual finding that the crime was brutal and heinous, must be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Swift, 202 Ill. 2d at 392, 781 N.E.2d at 300, citing Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435, 455, 120 S. Ct. 2348, 2362-63 (2000). When the case returned to the trial court, that court looked for another way to impose its 75-year sentence. The court did so by imposing the maximum 30-year nonextended sentence for home invasion, the previous 30-year sentence for aggravated arson, and the previous 15-year sentence for residential burglary, this time exercising its discretion to make all those sentences consecutive. The court may impose discretionary consecutive sentences if “it is of the opinion that such a term is required to protect the public from further criminal conduct by the defendant, the basis for which the court shall set forth in the record.” 730 ILCS 5/5 — 8—4(b) (West 2002). This case does not involve sentences imposed in violation of section 5 — 8—4(a), requiring consecutive sentences which are said to be void. People v. Garcia, 179 Ill. 2d 55, 73, 688 N.E.2d 57, 65 (1997). This case involves a situation where the trial court had properly chosen to impose concurrent sentences, but on remand changed its mind to impose discretionary consecutive sentences, which it had not previously chosen to impose. Imposition of consecutive sentences has produced difficulties. In People v. Todd, 263 Ill. App. 3d 435, 636 N.E.2d 114 (1994), abrogated in Kilpatrick, 167 Ill. 2d 439, 657 N.E.2d 1005, the defendant was convicted of three counts of criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/12— 13(a)(3) (West 1992)). Criminal sexual assault is a Class 1 felony, for which the sentence shall be not less than 4 years and not more than 15 years. 730 ILCS 5/5 — 8—1(a)(4) (West 1992). The trial court determined a sentence of 12 years was appropriate. Believing that consecutive sentences were required, the trial court sentenced defendant to four years on each count, to run consecutively. When it later developed that consecutive sentences could not be imposed, the trial court resentenced defendant to 12 years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. The supreme court eventually held that the resentencing, even though the total sentence was not increased, was improper. “A defendant should not have to run the risk that a challenge to his consecutive sentencing will result in a resentencing of increased length. Such a risk would have an improper chilling effect on a defendant’s decision to challenge a consecutive sentence as imposed by the trial court and could violate fundamental principles of due process of law.” Kilpatrick, 167 Ill. 2d at 447, 657 N.E.2d at 1008. I read Kilpatrick to express real concern about increased sentences on remand, imposing strict rules even where there is only a technical violation and the total sentence is not increased. I do not read Kilpatrick as endorsing a rule that would somehow tolerate an increase in the total sentence on remand. Kilpatrick quoted with approval the language from Muellner that “ ‘the resentencing of defendant to consecutive terms after originally imposing concurrent sentences was in the very real sense an increase in the length of his sentence because his earliest possible parole release will necessarily be delayed to a later date in time.’ ” Kilpatrick, 167 Ill. 2d at 444, 657 N.E.2d at 1007, quoting Muellner, 70 Ill. App. 3d at 683, 388 N.E.2d at 861. I do not understand how Sanders can approve three discretionary consecutive 10-year terms in place of three concurrent 25-year terms. How can an increase in the total sentence from 25 years to 30 years comply with the broad directive that the court “shall not impose a new sentence *** which is more severe than the prior sentence” (730 ILCS 5/5 — 5—4 (West 2002))? The Sanders court relied on Carney, but that decision only rejected defendant’s argument that consecutive sentences must, under Apprendi, be treated as a single sentence. See Carney, 196 Ill. 2d at 531, 752 N.E.2d at 1144. In the present case, the total sentence was unchanged. Under Kilpatrick, however, that is not a safe harbor. After remand, the trial court made findings that it had not previously made and imposed a sentence that it had not previously imposed. Given the strict rules applied by Kilpatrick, I conclude that a more severe sentence was improperly imposed following remand in this case.