Illinois Case Law Updates for January 2015. Here are the top Illinois criminal law decisions. Fast and convenient summary of recent Illinois criminal court cases. The Appellate Courts and Illinois Supreme Court had a busy-busy January.
Sentencing
People v. Taylor – Remanded for resentencing on an old gun conviction before he gun add-ons were fixed.
Search & Seizure
People v. Burns – Police need a warrant to bring a drug dog to an apartment front door.
People v. Bozarth – DUI arrest was improper when the officer could not explain why he pulled his gun out and aimed it at the lady.
People v. Lampkins – Remember to check the date of offense on sexual assault cases; the gun add-on may have been void at the time of the crime.
People v. Johnson – Conviction for aggravated kidnapping does not have to be vacated because the kidnapping was not incidental to the aggravated criminal sexual assault that occurred.
People v. Betance-Lopez – Defendant answered questions in Spanish during his confession. Are the translated transcripts substantive evidence?
People v. Simpson – Trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to hearsay evidence that Defendant used a bat to hit the murder victim.
People v. McGee – Trial court erred in admitting highly prejudicial evidence of other crimes and failing to comply with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 431(b), conviction for stalking is reversed.
People v. Mister – Does the silent witness theory of video evidence prevent a narration of what has been recorded including the identity of the defendant?
People v. Watkins – Trial judge erred in admitting photographs of drug messages found near the drugs as other crimes evidence against the defendant; drug conviction reversed.
People v. Coleman – Police mixes all the drugs in one bag and send it to the lab that way.
Juvenile
In re Henry B. – Minor cannot appeal his order of supervision because it is not a final judgement.
People v. Cannon – Unlawful consumption of alcohol by a minor conviction is reversed because the burden that the kid is not drinking under the supervision of a parent is on the State.
People v. Chenoweth – Discovery of a financial crimes involves more than just being told by the police that Defendant wrote some checks out; at best this merely raised a suspicion that a crime occurred.
Sentencing
People v. McWilliams – Convictions for armed robbery and aggravated unlawful restraint do violate one-act, one-crime principles in this case.
Prosecutorial Misconduct
People v. Haynes – There may be something here.
People v. Morales – The granting of this petition to rescind statutory summary suspension is reversed, suspension is back in effect.
People v. Getter – Defendant won his self defense case in his murder and attempted murder trial; but the self defense instruction was not given on one count!
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