People v. Janovic

850 N.E.2d 238, 365 Ill. App. 3d 547, 302 Ill. Dec. 801, 2006 Ill. App. LEXIS 310
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 14, 2006
Docket1-05-1706
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 850 N.E.2d 238 (People v. Janovic) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Janovic, 850 N.E.2d 238, 365 Ill. App. 3d 547, 302 Ill. Dec. 801, 2006 Ill. App. LEXIS 310 (Ill. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

JUSTICE O’HARA FROSSARD

delivered the opinion of the court:

After the conditional discharge sentence for his second conviction of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) was revoked, defendant Michael Janovic was sentenced to seven days in Cook County jail. On appeal, defendant contends that he was placed twice in jeopardy when his third DUI was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony and the conditional discharge sentence for his second DUI was revoked as a result of the third DUI.

BACKGROUND

Defendant was first convicted of DUI in 1991. On June 5, 2002, he was convicted of a second DUI. For that second misdemeanor conviction, he was sentenced to 18 months’ conditional discharge and the Secretary of State suspended his driver’s license. The sentence was in part conditioned upon defendant not violating any criminal statute of any jurisdiction.

Defendant was arrested for a third DUI on March 18, 2003, during the conditional discharge period and while his driver’s license was suspended. Defendant was charged with felony DUI based on his two prior DUI convictions and driving on a suspended license. In connection with these new charges, the State filed a petition to revoke the conditional discharge that had been imposed for the 2002 misdemeanor conviction.

On November 3, 2004, defendant was convicted of his third felony DUI, a Class 3 felony based upon his two prior convictions for DUI and driving with a suspended license. Defendant received a sentence of probation, community service, fines, fees, and costs. The State filed a petition to revoke his June 5, 2002, conditional discharge because defendant violated the terms of his June 5, 2002, conditional discharge by committing the felony DUI on March 18, 2003. On March 16, 2005, the circuit court found defendant guilty of violating the conditional discharge that had been imposed for the 2002 conviction and sentenced defendant to seven days in jail for the 2002 conviction.

ANALYSIS

On appeal, defendant contends that he was “placed twice in jeopardy when his 2003 DUI was enhanced from a class 4 felony to a class 3 felony as a result of the license revocation he received from a 2002 DUI conviction and his conditional discharge from a 2002 DUI was revoked as a result of the 2003 offense.” Defendant explains that he “does not question the State’s power to either enhance the sentence or to revoke the conditional discharge” but, instead, is challenging the use of both sanctions in combination. Defendant asserts that the “2003 offense may be punished by an enhanced felony sentence and no revocation of conditional discharge or by a misdemeanor sentence, consistent with a ‘common’ DUI, coupled with revocation of the conditional discharge” (emphasis added) but that “[pjunishment by both of these methods *** puts the defendant in double jeopardy.” He argues that his constitutional right to not be placed twice in jeopardy for the same offense was violated by “allowing a statutory scheme to exist that in reality allows double punishment for the same crime.”

The constitutions of the United States and Illinois both provide that no person shall be put in jeopardy twice for the same criminal offense. U.S. Const., amend. V; Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 10. The double jeopardy clause protects defendants from three abuses: (1) a second prosecution after an acquittal; (2) a second prosecution after a conviction; and (3) multiple punishments for the same offense. People v. Gray, 214 Ill. 2d 1, 6 (2005). In this case, the third safeguard is at issue.

When determining whether a defendant is being subjected to multiple punishments for double jeopardy purposes, a court must determine the following: (1) whether the alleged multiple punishments were for the same offense, (2) whether the sanction in question constituted “punishment,” and (3) whether the second proceeding was distinct and separate from the first. People v. Jones, 301 Ill. App. 3d 608, 609 (1998). If any of these determinations are made in the negative, double jeopardy does not apply. Jones, 301 Ill. App. 3d at 609.

In this case, defendant “does not question the State’s power to either enhance the sentence or to revoke the conditional discharge.” Instead, he argues that the use of both sanctions in combination violated the double jeopardy clause. Defendant’s argument is without merit because the sanctions imposed in this case each applied to a separate and distinct offense: enhancement of his 2003 DUI felony conviction applied only to the aggravated and repetitive manner in which defendant committed the third DUI offense, while the revocation and resentencing applied only to defendant’s second DUI offense. As noted above, if alleged multiple punishments were not imposed for the same offense, double jeopardy does not apply. See Jones, 301 Ill. App. 3d at 609.

Defendant is correct that charges or sentences may be enhanced based on a defendant’s criminal history without violating double jeopardy protections. The Illinois Supreme Court has held that it does not violate double jeopardy principles “for a defendant to be convicted and sentenced for a crime even though the conduct underlying that offense has been considered in determining the defendant’s sentence for a previous conviction.” People v. Blue, 207 Ill. 2d 542, 549 (2003). Based on this general principle, the Illinois Supreme Court has held that a finding of eligibility for the death penalty based on criminal history does not violate the guarantee against double jeopardy (People v. Kidd, 178 111. 2d 92, 136-37 (1997)), and this court has held that the imposition of an extended-term sentence based on prior- convictions does not violate the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy (People v. Fikara, 345 Ill. App. 3d 144, 156-57 (2003)).

In People v. Washington, the defendant argued that the habitual criminal statute violates the United States and Illinois constitutional right to be free from double jeopardy. People v. Washington, 125 Ill. App. 3d 109, 116 (1984). He claimed the statute punished him not just for committing the third offense but also for the first two offenses. Washington, 125 Ill. App. 3d at 116. However, we explained that “defendant is not punished a second time for a prior offense; rather, prior adjudications are used to establish matters in aggravation to support the disposition [statutorily] authorized for a third [more] serious offense.” Washington, 125 Ill. App. 3d at 116.

Here, defendant received a felony sentence for his third DUI, which was an aggravated offense, enhanced to a Class 3 felony, both because defendant committed it while his driver’s license was suspended and because it was his third DUI conviction. Accordingly, the felony DUI “punished [defendant] only for the fact that the [third] offense was carried out in a manner that warrants increased punishment.” Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389, 403, 132 L. Ed. 2d 351, 366, 115 S. Ct. 2199, 2208 (1995). Defendant’s felony DUI does not violate double jeopardy because it appropriately penalized him for his third offense.

Defendant is also correct that conditional discharge may be revoked without violating double jeopardy principles.

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Bluebook (online)
850 N.E.2d 238, 365 Ill. App. 3d 547, 302 Ill. Dec. 801, 2006 Ill. App. LEXIS 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-janovic-illappct-2006.