People v. Jones

Defendant was convicted, after jury trial, of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. Defense counsel was not ineffective for failing to request a jury instruction pertaining to the evaluation of eyewitness testimony. The decision whether to request a certain jury instruction is generally a matter of trial strategy. By intentionally declining to have IPI Criminal No. 3.15 delivered, defense counsel was able to argue the shortcomings of the officers' identifications (which were 2 of the 5 factors mentioned in that instruction), while not calling any attention to factors that would actually hurt his case. This was plainly a sound trial strategy. (DAUGHERITY, concurring; McDADE, specially concurring.)