People v. Lockett

554 N.E.2d 566, 196 Ill. App. 3d 981, 143 Ill. Dec. 631, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 519
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 16, 1990
DocketNo. 1-88-2407
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 554 N.E.2d 566 (People v. Lockett) 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. Lockett, 554 N.E.2d 566, 196 Ill. App. 3d 981, 143 Ill. Dec. 631, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 519 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

JUSTICE O’CONNOR

delivered the opinion of the court:

Gerry Lockett was charged with residential burglary (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 19—3), convicted after a jury trial, and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. Lockett appeals, arguing that improper voir dire produced a biased jury and that he was improperly sentenced as a repeat offender. For the reasons below, we affirm.

At about 3 a.m. on November 27, 1987, Allan Cannon entered his apartment, which he shared with his sister, at 1057 West Berwyn in Chicago. Cannon noticed a broken window in his sister’s bedroom. He then saw a man, whom he did not know, standing about six feet away from him in the apartment hallway. The only light came from the bathroom off the hallway. The man said to Cannon, “I know your sister.” Cannon fled the apartment to call the police from the nearby El station. Outside his apartment, Cannon saw the man running down an alley. Cannon described the man to police as a dark black man with curly hair, about 5 feet 5 inches, weighing about 200 pounds.

Cannon returned to his apartment and noticed that his bicycle had been placed on his bed, and that his sister’s baby clothes, which had been packed in bags, had been thrown all over. Although the apartment was in a general state of disarray, which Cannon admitted was not uncommon, nothing had been taken.

A short time later, the police caught a man matching the description about three blocks from the apartment. The police returned to the apartment with the suspect, whom Cannon identified as the intruder. The suspect was the defendant, Gerry Lockett. Lockett was charged with residential burglary (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 19—3), and criminal trespass to residence (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 19—4), and granted a jury trial.

During voir dire, the trial court instructed the prospective jurors of the defendant’s right not to testify, stating:

“Under the law, under our constitution, anyone accused of a crime has — as a matter of fact, you don’t have to be accused of a crime to know what’s the privilege against self-incrimination.
When a person is accused of a crime, the State, as I told you, has the only burden of proof, and the accused person doesn’t have to prove anything at all.
Now, should a person on trial before you not take the witness stand, his decision not to take the witness stand should not, in any way, be the basis of inference regarding the question of guilt or innocence.
Now, do any of you have any problem in abiding with that principle of law? If you think you might have a problem, accepting that, abiding by it, during your service as jurors, please raise your hand. [No response indicated.]”

Defense counsel made no objection to the trial court’s statement until after the jury had been selected and sworn, when he asked the court to clarify its statement. The trial court read the jury the substance of Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal, No. 2.04, (2d ed. 1981) (IPI Criminal 2d), which defense counsel said would be acceptable. The jury subsequently received IPI Criminal 2d No. 2.04 again as part of the jury instructions.

Four of the jurors had been victims of crime, three of whom had been victims of burglaries. The trial court questioned the four individually about their experiences, and asked whether their experiences “would affect [their] ability to be fair and impartial as a juror.” Each answered that he could be fair and impartial. Defense counsel objected to the extent of the questioning, requesting that the court ask them whether they were confident that they could be impartial. The trial court denied the request, stating that the issue of their impartiality had been sufficiently covered.

Nevertheless, the trial court later asked each of the four, “Are you confident you could decide a case on trial before you solely on the basis of the evidence that you hear and my instructions to you regarding law?” The trial court subsequently denied defense counsel’s motion to dismiss the burglary victims for cause. Counsel exercised no peremptory challenges to excuse the burglary victims, although the peremptory challenges had not been exhausted.

The jury found Lockett guilty of residential burglary, a Class 1 felony. Lockett was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment as a repeat offender (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 1005—5—3(c)(8)), due to prior convictions for burglary, which were presented at the sentencing hearing. Lockett appeals both conviction and sentence.

Lockett argues that the trial court failed to assure that the jury would be fair and impartial, the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict, and he was improperly sentenced because the prior convictions were not alleged in the indictment or proved at trial. Lockett’s arguments are without merit.

Lockett first contends that the jurors were improperly instructed on the defendant’s right not to testify, but this contention was waived. Counsel failed to object when the allegedly improper instruction was given, and later, when the objection was made, counsel accepted the trial court’s suggestion for curing any error. Even had the argument not been waived, there was no indication of error. The trial court clearly, if not eloquently, communicated to the prospective jurors that the defendant had a right not to testify, and that the exercise of that right should not be inferred as an indication of guilt or innocence. Finally, the jurors received IPI Criminal 2d No. 2.04, which addresses the defendant’s right not to testify. The jury was properly and adequately instructed.

Lockett also contends that the voir dire of the burglary victims was improperly restrictive and the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion to dismiss for cause. The State argues that Lockett’s objection to the jurors was waived for failure to exercise an available peremptory challenge. We disagree. The objection was preserved by counsel’s motion to dismiss for cause. (E.g., People v. Hines (1988), 165 Ill. App. 3d 289, 518 N.E.2d 1362, cert. denied (1988), 488 U.S. 895, 102 L. Ed. 2d 226, 109 S. Ct. 236.) Nevertheless, the trial court properly exercised its discretion to deny Lockett’s request.

The questions and procedures of voir dire should reasonably assure that any prejudice or bias would be discovered. (People v. Morgan (1987), 152 Ill. App. 3d 97, 504 N.E.2d 172, cert. denied (1987), 484 U.S. 866, 98 L. Ed. 2d 141, 108 S. Ct. 189.) Here, the record shows that the trial court asked each of the four crime victims detailed questions about the crimes each had suffered, and specifically asked each whether he could remain impartial. The trial court denied counsel’s request to further explore the issue of impartiality, but when the jurors were impanelled, the trial court did, in fact, use the language requested by defense counsel, asking each juror, including the burglary victims, whether he was confident that he could remain impartial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
554 N.E.2d 566, 196 Ill. App. 3d 981, 143 Ill. Dec. 631, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-lockett-illappct-1990.