Intentional Homicide of an Unborn Child
By Mark Wykoff, Sr.
Criminal Justice,
May 2025
In People v. Lane, 2023 IL 128269, the issue before the Illinois Supreme Court was whether a finding of guilty for both first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child constitutes multiple murders, triggering 5-8-1 of the Unified Code of Corrections (730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 2006)), mandating a sentence of life in prison.
In People v. Lane (2023), the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child counts as only one murder for sentencing. Therefore, the mandatory life sentence under the multiple murder statute did not apply. The Court vacated Lane’s life sentence and ordered resentencing, also overruling the 1997 Third District Appellate case, People v. Shoultz, that treated such cases as multiple murders.
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