Criminal Law

Defendant was found guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and was sentenced to seven years in prison. On appeal, defendant argued that that he was denied the ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel withdrew a motion to suppress even after an officer admitted there was no lawful basis for the traffic stop that led to the discovery of a handgun in defendants car and the State did not prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew about the handgun that police found in his car. The appellate court reversed, finding that when viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State neither the facts nor the reasonable inferences to be drawn from those facts could support the trial court’s finding of guilt. (C.A. WALKER, concurring and TAILOR, dissenting)

Defendant, who pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a firearm and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, appealed from the trial court’s dismissal of his post-conviction petition. Defendant argued on appeal that his guilty plea was not voluntary, intelligent, and knowing when he faced impeachment through introduction of a prior conviction that was invalidated by an opinion of the Supreme Court and, as a result, was a void conviction. The appellate court reversed and remanded, explaining that taking the allegations of the petition as true, defendant had put forth a substantial showing that his constitutional rights were violated and that the trial court should have held an evidentiary hearing on the post-conviction petition. (ODEN JOHNSON and C.A. WALKER, concurring)

Defendant, who was charged with first-degree murder after his child allegedly died of shaken baby syndrome, appealed from a trial court order denying him pretrial release. The appellate court reversed and remanded, explaining that the trial court’s finding that there was no set of conditions that could mitigation the threat of danger the defendant posed was against the manifest weight of the evidence where defendant was 40 years old and had no criminal background, had a job as a security guard, and had no other children. The appellate court also noted that the trial court did not make any findings as to why less restrictive conditions would avoid a real and present threat to the safety of any person or persons in the community. (HYMAN and C.A. WALKER, concurring)

Defendant, who was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated domestic battery appealed from a trial court order granting the State’s petition for pretrial release. At issue on the appeal was the appellate court’s scope of review where defendant checked boxes on the notice of appeal form but did not further explain the basis of his claims or file a supporting memorandum. The State argue that the appeal should be dismissed. The appellate court declined to summarily dismiss the appeal and reviewed the limited record available to it, but determined that the record failed to show an error in the trial court proceedings. (SCHOSTOK and MULLEN, concurring)