People v. Marshall

Defendant was charged with aggravated battery and the circuit court granted the State’s pretrial petition to detain defendant. On appeal, defendant argued that the State failed to prove he committed a detainable offense because he did not cause great bodily harm. The appellate court affirmed the trial court and the supreme court granted defendant’s petition for leave to appeal. While the appeal was pending, defendant pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and defendant conceded that his appeal was moot but nevertheless argued that it should be reviewed under the public interest exception to the mootness doctrine. The appellate court found that defendant could not satisfy the second requirement of the public interest exception because the law addressing the availability of plain error and ineffective assistance of counsel claims in pretrial detention cases is not presently in disarray and had not evaded judicial review and the court dismissed the appeal as moot.