Court Opinion

ID: 9725443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:48:19.429287+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:15.219333
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HARRISON, dissenting: Once the trial court determined on remand that defendant was taking psychotropic drugs at the time of his trial and sentencing, no further inquiry was authorized or appropriate. The rule is clear and the remedy is automatic. Defendant is entitled to a new trial under People v. Brandon, 162 Ill. 2d 450 (1994), and the cases we have decided in accordance with Brandon. The trial court’s decision to take additional evidence beyond the scope of our remand instructions can only be understood as evincing dissatisfaction by the trial court with the Brandon rule. The court was obviously searching for a way to circumvent our decisions, but the decisions of the supreme court are not optional, nor are our orders. Where we issue clear and unambiguous directions to a circuit court, those directions must be strictly followed. Any action taken by the circuit court beyond those directions is outside the scope of its authority and void for lack of jurisdiction. People ex rel. Daley v. Schreier, 92 Ill. 2d 271, 276-77 (1982). By considering the additional evidence taken by the trial court here, my colleagues have ignored this principle completely. In so doing, they may have dealt a serious blow to our authority as an institution. Our power depends on obedience to our decisions, but if circuit courts can depart from those decisions whenever a majority on this court considers it expedient in a particular case, we will quickly find our power gone. Lower courts will have no incentive to do what we have instructed them to do because they know that, depending on the passing fancy of this court, they are very likely to get away with it. In ruling as it does, the majority makes no effort at all to distinguish this case from Brandon and its progeny. It tells us that there are "sufficient reasons” to depart from past precedent "at least in the present case” (176 Ill. 2d at 303) but nowhere does it give its reasons or explain what it is about this case that makes it different. The majority simply proceeds to make an after-the-fact assessment of defendant’s fitness at the time of trial, the very practice this court has repeatedly and consistently rejected. People v. Gevas, 166 Ill. 2d 461, 471 (1995); People v. Birdsall, 172 Ill. 2d 464, 480 (1996). The only conclusion one can reasonably draw from all of this is that the Brandon line of cases, as recent as it is, has been suddenly and inexplicably overruled. Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of Brandon, such action is improper. Once a principle of law has been established by the court, the doctrine of stare decisis dictates that it should not be discarded simply because some members of the court disagree or have changed their minds. As this court explained in Chicago Bar Ass’n v. Illinois State Board of Elections, 161 Ill. 2d 502, 510 (1994): "The doctrine of stare decisis is the means by which courts ensure that the law will not merely change erratically, but will develop in a principled and intelligible fashion. Stare decisis permits society to presume that fundamental principles are established in the law rather than in the proclivities of individuals.” The majority’s decision today is directly contrary to these principles. Indeed, we have no stare decisis under the majority’s opinion in this case. The doctrine is dead. If there is no stare decisis and if lower courts are now free to disregard our orders, it is difficult for me to see what practical function we serve as a court of review. One thing is sure though. Illinois jurisprudence has seen brighter moments. JUSTICE FREEMAN joins in this dissent.