People v. Green

Defendant was convicted of 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Defendant filed postconviction petition alleging that his trial counsel labored under a per se conflict of interest as he had previously represented the intended victim of the murder, and Defendant neither knew about nor waived the conflict. Circuit court denied petition after 3rd-stage evidentiary hearing. There is no allegation that defense attorney ever represented the actual victim, because he did not represent both the Defendant and the victim of the charged crime. Thus, court properly denied postconviction petition. A per se conflict exists only: 1) where defense counsel has a prior or contemporaneous association with the victim, the prosecution, or an entity assisting the prosecution; or 2) where defense counsel contemporaneously represents a prosecution witness; or 3) where defense counsel was a former prosecutor who had been personally involved with prosecution of Defendant, and none of those 3 situations existed here. (A. BURKE, KILBRIDE, GARMAN, KARMEIER, THEIS, and NEVILLE, concurring.)