People v. Tally

(Court opinion corrected 5/28/14.) Defendant was charged with aggravated battery. State filed motion for pretrial discovery, requesting Defendant to give written notice of any affirmative defenses he intended to assert at trial. Defendant did not give notice of any affirmative defense until day of bench trial when he disclosed that he intended to raise self-defense as an affirmative defense. Court barred Defendant from using self-defense as an affirmative defense, as a discovery sanction. Excluding any evidence of self-defense was unduly harsh sanction which prevented full presentation of all relevant facts, and effectively denied Defendant the opportunity to present any defense, as his entire defense would have been based on claim of self-defense.(WELCH and GOLDENHERSH, concurring.)