People v. Wells

This case presents question as to whether trial court denied defendant due process, where it granted State’s motion to dismiss defendant’s section 2-1401(b-5) petition to reduce her 40-year sentence that was imposed after defendant had entered guilty plea to murder charge, where defendant alleged that her participation in victim’s murder was related to defendant being victim of domestic violence, and where trial court entered dismissal order prior to giving defendant chance to respond to State’s motion. Appellate Court found that trial court had violated defendant’s due process rights under these circumstances, and that although defendant’s section 2-1401 motion was untimely, trial court’s error was not harmless, because defendant lacked opportunity to argue that: (1) her petition was not untimely, where subsection b-5 had not been enacted until January 2016; and (2) it would be inequitable to apply 2-year limitation period under these circumstances.