Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Post-Conviction Hearing Act
Defendant was found guilty of 11 counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and four counts of manufacturing child pornography and sentenced to 101 years in prison. At issue on appeal was whether defendant received unreasonable assistance of his retained post-conviction counsel because counsel labored under an actual conflict of interest at the first stage of proceedings. The appellate court agreed with defendant that he received unreasonable assistance of post-conviction counsel where counsel was operating under an actual conflict that caused counsel to fail to allege ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. (HUTCHINSON and BIRKETT, concurring)