People v. Smith

Defendant was found guilty by a jury of multiple counts of solicitation of murder and solicitation of murder for hire based on evidence that he had sought to arrange for the murders of a judge and Assistant State’s Attorney while he was in jail and awaiting trial on other charges. Defendant was sentenced to concurrent 40-year prison terms and defendant appealed. On appeal, defendant argued that the State failed to prove him guilty of soliciting a murder for hire beyond a reasonable doubt because the prosecution failed to prove that defendant procured an actual “hitman,” where the person defendant attempted to hire was an undercover officer who had no intent of following through with the murders. Defendant also argued that trial counsel was ineffective when he failed to request a jury instruction defining the word “procure.” The appellate court found that a rational trier of fact could have found defendant guilty of procuring an individual to commit first degree murder pursuant to an agreement for money and that defendant did not establish that his counsel’s performance was deficient. However, the appellate court did remand for a hearing on defendant’s additional allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel relating to counsel’s failure to object to the State’s impeachment of him with evidence of post-arrest silence. (C.A. WALKER and HYMAN, concurring)