People v. English 

Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Postconviction Petitions
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 1-08-1868
Decision Date: 
Friday, July 9, 2010
District: 
1st Dist.
Division/County: 
Cook Co., 5th Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed.
Justice: 
FITZGERALD SMITH
(Court opinion corrected 9/8/10.)Defendant filed pro se successive postconviction petition for relief from judgment as to his conviction for first degree murder in shooting death of man and shooting of man's brother who had just bought drugs from Defendant. Defendant claimed ineffective assistance of counsel by counsel failing to call alibi witnesses. Res judicata applies to bar claim, which was previously dismissed in a substantive ruling because Defendant failed to support his claim with affidavits, and Defendant could have raised his claim of an additional alibi witness in his first petition. Though labeled as a claim of actual innocence, his claim was actually a reiteration of same ineffective assistance of counsel claim; and claim fails because evidence was not newly discovered. (TOOMIN and LAVIN, concurring.)