Court Opinion

ID: 9528264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:38:59.963399+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:22:20.558702
License: Public Domain

SMITH, J. dissenting: “Shoemaker, stick to your last.” This proverb is contained in Natural History Book 35, § 84, by Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), and referred to in Plutarch’s “Moral-is.” Hoary and. timeworn as it is, it epitomizes my reasons for reversing this case outright. I would reverse both judgment orders and remand for further appropriate proceedings. In so doing, I do not recede from the position previously taken by this court in Tribbett, En-dress and Sumner I. In each of those cases we were dealing with specifics. In each of those cases we relied upon the inherent power of a trial court to insure a defendant a fair trial or upon case law indicating the propriety of the principles announced in those cases. In none of them did we come close to considering the sweeping motion and the sweeping order that we review here. There we were passing upon questions of what is discoverable and how to get it. In the case at bar, the sole issue before us on the question of pretrial discovery is not what the defendant is entitled to discover, but rather the method to be used to determine whether or not there is anything to discover and how to get it. Chapter 38, § 114-13, Ill Rev Stats 1967, provides that discovery procedures in criminal cases shall be in accordance with Supreme Court rules. Whether this statute be regarded as a grant of authority or a statement of public policy, it implies nowhere that a trial court has the authority to initiate discovery rules nor that this court may do so. While the majority disavows that they are establishing a rule or have any authority to do so, they are in fact promulgating a threefold rule which has the effect of (1) permitting discovery of material not heretofore discoverable in this State under any decision, rule or statute, (2) requiring the State’s Attorney to state whether he has any such material or to disclaim its existence, and (3) if he disclaims its existence in whole or in part, require him to produce his file so that the court may determine whether or not there is anything worthwhile to be turned over to the defendant. In his memorandum opinion, the trial court states that the defendant cannot have a fair trial without pretrial discovery and that it is his belief that we have progressed to a point where the defendant is entitled to such pretrial discovery. By its approval of the trial court’s order, the majority opinion apparently subscribes to that doctrine. There are no facts in the trial court’s opinion nor in the majority opinion upon which to base such a conclusion, unless it can now be said that pretrial discovery in every criminal case is an essential to a fair trial. Facetious argument suggests that it necessarily follows that the trials heretofore held in this State during the past 150 years without pretrial discovery have not been fair trials. Such a conclusion, of course, is nonsense. It is equally nonsensical to lay down a rule that pretrial discovery in every case is an essential to a fair trial. If the trial court’s order is approved here, we announce a rule or a policy that unlimited pretrial discovery is necessary for a fair trial in every case. In so doing, we usurp the authority that rests with the Supreme Court, not with either the trial court or this court. It is a practice and a rule that is a far-reaching departure from any practice or procedure which has been heretofore followed or approved anywhere in this State. I have no quarrel with the proposition that the State’s Attorney may, if he opts, open his file to the defendant, to the defendant’s attorney, or to anybody else, and a police department may do likewise. Under our system of jurisprudence, the obligation that the guilty as well as the innocent receive a fair trial is an essential part of the obligation of the State’s Attorney and his associated law enforcing agencies. I would therefore issue a caveat to State’s Attorneys that the failure to disclose to a defendant information which would substantially affect the innocence or guilt of such defendant, retard or deprive him of a proper defense or perhaps even affect his punishment may under the authorities cited in the majority opinion result in punishment for contempt, the loss of a conviction, a retrial or a dismissal of the case. If whenever and wherever prosecutorial misconduct, malfeasance or misfeasance occurs in this obligation of the State’s Attorney, then the sanctions of either the trial court or this court should be swift, certain and appropriate. A reasonable acquiescence in these principles by the prosecuting agencies will avoid the never ending post-conviction hearings which are worrisome, wearisome, and exhausting to both the trial courts and reviewing courts. I entertain no doubt but that the trial court and the majority seek a fair trial. So do I. We part company on how it is to be assured. I cannot subscribe to the doctrine that pretrial discovery is necessary to insure a fair trial in every case. I cannot subscribe to the proposition that pretrial discovery is required in this case. There is nothing in this record except the unsupported conclusion of the trial court and its affirmance by the majority opinion that it is necessary to insure a fair trial. Grant it where necessary to a fair trial; deny it where it is patently only a trial tactic. By reversal, the trial of the principal case will be resumed in the trial court. The State’s Attorney may then do a little soul searching and either comply with the principles stated here or realize that a conviction otherwise obtained is stillborn. In the meantime, the trial court and this court should “stick to their lasts,” i. e., attend to our own proper business of trial and review, respectively, and not assume the prerogative of the Supreme Court, either to promulgate a far-reaching rule or to establish a far-reaching policy on pretrial discovery.