Defendant filed a motion in the circuit court seeking leave to file a second successive post-conviction petition challenging his conviction for murder. Defendant argued that newly discovered evidence showed that the police officers who interrogated him had engaged in a pattern and practice of police brutality and that his confession was a result of police coercion. The circuit court denied the petition, finding he failed to establish both the cause and prejudice required by section 122-1(f) of the Post-Conviction Hearing Act. The appellate court affirmed. The Supreme Court also affirmed, however, it rejected the rule adopted by the appellate court regarding cause and instead affirmed on the basis that the defendant’s allegations of coercion were directly contradicted by his sworn trial testimony so that the defendant failed to make a showing of prejudice. (THEIS, MICHAEL J. BURKE, OVERSTREET, and CARTER, concurring. NEVILLE and HOLDER WHITE took no part in the decision.)
Illinois Supreme Court
Criminal Court
Post-Conviction Hearing Act