People v. Hill

This case presents question as to whether defendant is entitled to new sentencing hearing on his 1st degree murder conviction, in which he received 60-term of incarceration, where trial court denied defendant’s motion to strike State’s notice of intent to seek death penalty, which was not filed until 247 days after his arraignment, in contravention with Rule 416(c). Although it rejected State’s argument that defendant’s argument was now moot in light of term of years sentence that was actually imposed, Appellate Court, in denying defendant’s request for new sentencing hearing, found that defendant had failed to show any actual prejudice resulting from State’s untimely filing where he had received all protections that would have been given to defendants facing potential death sentence.