Court Opinion

ID: 9726136
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:32:45.612891+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:23.490258
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SIMON, specially concurring: As the majority opinion points out, this court “has repeatedly declined to adopt a rule that would expressly require our circuit courts to inform all defendants of the unanimity requirement before accepting jury waivers at death sentencing hearings.” (112 Ill. 2d at 292.) I believe that fairness requires that defendants be so informed, however, and that judicial economy would be well served by such a rule in view of how often this issue arises in post-trial and appellate argument. The same question also often arises in connection with jury instructions. In some cases, such as the present, there is no indication that any explanation of the unanimity rule was given to the defendant by the court. Rather, the assumption seems to be that the defendant’s attorney must have explained the rule in the course of obtaining the defendant’s waiver of a jury. That assumption may or may not have any basis in reality, and in the absence of an explanation of the rule by the court and careful inquiry as to whether the defendant understands its application to the sentencing hearing, there is no way of determining on review whether the defendant was properly informed. In other cases, a partial or inaccurate explanation has been given to the defendant by the court, leaving to the defendant the task of divining the consequences of the rule as it applies to the imposition of the death penalty. I would require a trial judge to inform a defendant that if he opts for a jury at his sentencing hearing, the death penalty can be imposed only if all 12 jurors agree that it should be, and in addition, that if even one juror disagrees, the death penalty cannot be imposed. While I agree that there is no precise formula for determining whether a waiver has been knowingly and intelligently made, the rule I propose would eliminate the ambiguity that now frequently calls into question the sufficiency of otherwise valid waivers. Ambiguity or uncertainty regarding the fairness of any step of proceedings involving the death sentence is intolerable, especially when it would be so simple to eliminate the problem and any attendant uncertainties.