In a single-car accident, the vehicle which left the road, and passenger was ejected and killed. Defendant had an unidentified amount of cannabinoids in his system.Defendant pled guilty to aggravated DUI causing a death and driving while his license was suspended, and was sentenced to 12 years. The DUI statute, which then prohibited driving with any amount of drugs in one's system, was amended after Defendant's conviction, but the earlier version was in accord with the scientific limitations of the time as to ability to detect the amount of cannabis within a driver's system. The subsection of the DUI statute under which Defendant was charged does ot require State to establish proof of impairment, but only there was cannabis in his system. Court did not impose an excessive sentence or consider improper factors or fail to give credit to factors in mitigation.(SCHMIDT and LYTTON, concurring.)
Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Aggravated DUI