Subject Index Criminal Law and Procedure

On May 26, 2021, the Fifth District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that a 55-year sentence does not violate Eighth Amendment rights.

On April 15, 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a trial court may summarily dismiss a postconviction petition for lack of standing.

On March 31, 2021, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court vacated a 19-year-old’s 50-year sentence on a first-degree murder conviction when the defendant did not fire the murder weapon and had a traumatic childhood.

On March 18, 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that admonishment requirements under 725 ILCS 5/113-4(c) apply only when a defendant pleads guilty at arraignment.

On Feb. 11, 2021, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court dismissed a successive postconviction petition raising a due-process violation on fitness grounds because the defendant neither raised the claim earlier nor showed cause for such failure.

On Feb. 16, 2021, the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that statements made in response to questions by a 911 operator can still be spontaneous enough to qualify for the excited-utterance exception to the hearsay rule.

On Jan. 7, 2021, the Fourth District of the Illinois Appellate Court invalidated a Miranda waiver by a defendant with an intellectual disability who at one point raised his wish for a lawyer.

On Dec. 31, 2020, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that a defendant’s intellectual disability alone does not nullify his voluntary jury waiver.

On Oct. 28, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the State of Illinois must prove that false information furnished by a defendant resulted in a material impediment to the administration of justice to convict under an obstruction-of-justice charge.

On Sept. 24, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court found that the trial court’s sua sponte vacatur of the defendant’s guilty plea did not improperly terminate jeopardy; thus, the subsequent bench trial did not constitute double jeopardy.

On Sept. 24, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the limited-authority doctrine, which provides that a defendant’s authority to enter a building is limited to the specifically authorized purpose, applies to residential burglary by entry.

On Sept. 3, 2020, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed a trial court’s judgment in a decades-old murder case against evidentiary objections.

On Aug. 20, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court held that failing to raise a presentencing investigation (PSI) report issue under section 5-3-1 of the Unified Code of Corrections in a postplea motion within 30 days after sentencing results in forfeiting and waiving the claim.

On July 7, 2020, the Fifth District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that the simultaneous possession of a firearm and any amount of cannabis is prohibited under the Illinois Criminal Code.

On July 13, 2020, the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court found an expert’s testimony inadmissible because the expert witness was not present at the time of the defendant’s offense.

On June 11, 2020, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court reversed and remanded a decision by the trial court denying an offender under age 21 the opportunity to file a successive postconviction petition based on evolving pertinent law and science.

On June 16, 2020, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court found that a defendant had provided a gist of a constitutional claim for purposes of filing a postconviction petition when a trial court, without the assistance of an interpreter, pronounced him guilty.

On May 15, 2020, the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the judgment of the Stephenson County Circuit Court that the defendant resisted or obstructed a peace officer’s authorized acts. 

On May 12, 2020, the Third District of the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the judgment of the Peoria County Circuit Court by holding that a defendant’s postconviction petition cannot be dismissed where newly discovered evidence shows that an eyewitness’s self-interested testimony may have materially affected the outcome of the trial.

At a trial convicting the defendant of residential burglary, the state presented a fingerprint expert’s testimony on a partial fingerprint obtained at the scene that matched the defendant’s.

A state trooper convicted of first-degree murder of his girlfriend at a middle-school graduation party argued on appeal that the circuit court denied him a fair trial by refusing to instruct the jury on the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter.

On Jan. 30, 2020, the Fifth District Appellate Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling denying a defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea of guilty but mentally ill.

The Illinois General Assembly enacted the Removal of Private Compromising Images Act. Effective Jan. 1, 2020, the Act prohibits the “posting of private compromising images” of another person online.

On Oct. 18, 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court vacated a defendant’s conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm by a member of a street gang.

On Oct. 18, 2019, the First District Court of Appeals declined to reverse a defendant’s conviction for being an armed habitual criminal.