Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Postconviction Petitions
Defendant's petition for leave to file successive postconviction petition properly denied, as Defendant failed to establish freestanding claim of actual innocence. Defendant made incriminating statement as to numerous offenses occurring in two-month period, and was then indicted on over 100 charges in 13 different cases. Given State's proffer of numerous eyewitness testimony in the 6 cases to which Defendant claimed he made false incriminating statements due to police coercion, there is no reasonable probability that if confessions were excluded he would not have pleaded guilty. Defendant failed to meet cause-and-prejudice test due to amply supportive evidence proferred by State, so that even if additional documents of police brutality at Area 2 of Police Department prevented introduction of his confession the Defendant would have proceeded to trial and would have been acquitted.