People v. Peacock

2022 IL App (1st) 170308-B
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided June 1, 2022·No. 1-17-0308·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

2022 IL App (1st) 170308-B No. 1-17-0308 Opinion filed June 1, 2022 Third Division

______________________________________________________________________________

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County. ) v. ) No. 95 CR 26400 (01) ) TAKI PEACOCK, ) Honorable ) Frank Zelezinski, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge presiding. ______________________________________________________________________________

JUSTICE McBRIDE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Ellis and Burke concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶1 Defendant, Taki Peacock, is currently serving concurrent respective sentences of 80 years,

30 years, 30 years, and 30 years of imprisonment for his convictions for the 1995 first degree

murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated vehicular hijacking, and armed robbery of the victim,

Rufus Taylor. The evidence at defendant’s bench trial, which is more fully set out in the opinion

arising out of defendant’s direct appeal (see People v. Peacock, 324 Ill. App. 3d 749 (2001)),

showed that defendant and a co-offender, Lawrence Wallace, planned to take the victim’s car and

defendant obtained a gun from his sister-in-law. The next day, Wallace put a gun to the victim’s

head and held him at gunpoint in the back seat of the victim’s vehicle, while defendant drove them

to a secluded location. Thereafter, Wallace shot the victim twice, and defendant fired at the victim No. 1-17-0308-B

once but missed. Wallace and defendant left in the victim’s car and were apprehended in that

vehicle in Indiana. The victim later died from his injuries. Defendant was 17 years old at the time

of the offense.

¶2 Defendant’s conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. Id. On September 27,

2001, defendant filed an initial postconviction petition, alleging that his constitutional rights were

violated because his jury waiver was coerced through trial counsel’s “misrepresentation and

manipulation” and his confession was involuntarily given at a time when he was under the

influence of drugs and alcohol. The first stage denial of that petition was affirmed on appeal.

People v. Peacock, No. 1-02-0615 (2004) (unpublished order under Illinois Supreme Court Rule

23).

¶3 This appeal concerns defendant’s September 12, 2016, successive postconviction petition,

in which he argued that his 80-year sentence was an unconstitutional de facto life sentence

pursuant to Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), and violated the proportionate penalties clause

of the Illinois Constitution. The circuit court denied defendant leave to file his successive

postconviction petition on October 12, 2016, finding that the petition was untimely and that

defendant had failed to file a motion for leave to file the petition. Defendant appealed.

¶4 The Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Act) (725 ILCS 5/122-1(a)(1) (West 2018)) provides a

tool by which those under criminal sentence in this state can assert that their convictions were the

result of a substantial denial of their rights under the United States Constitution or the Illinois

Constitution or both. People v. Coleman, 183 Ill. 2d 366, 378-79 (1998). Only one

postconviction proceeding is contemplated under the Act (People v. Edwards, 2012 IL 111711,

¶ 22), and a defendant seeking to file a successive postconviction petition must first obtain leave

of court (People v. Tidwell, 236 Ill. 2d 150, 157 (2010)). The bar against successive

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postconviction proceedings should not be relaxed unless (1) a defendant can establish “cause and

prejudice” for the failure to raise the claim earlier or (2) he can show actual innocence under the

“fundamental miscarriage of justice” exception. Edwards, 2012 IL 111711, ¶¶ 22-23; People v.

Smith, 2014 IL 115946, ¶ 30.

¶5 Under the cause and prejudice test, a defendant must establish both (1) cause for his or

her failure to raise the claim earlier and (2) prejudice stemming from his or her failure to do so.

Edwards, 2012 IL 111711, ¶ 22 (citing People v. Pitsonbarger, 205 Ill. 2d 444, 459 (2002)). The

cause-and-prejudice standard is higher than the normal first-stage “frivolous or patently without

merit” standard applied to initial petitions. See id. ¶¶ 25-29; Smith, 2014 IL 115946, ¶ 35.

“[L]eave of court to file a successive postconviction petition should be

denied when it is clear, from a review of the successive petition and the

documentation submitted by the petitioner, that the claims alleged by the

petitioner fail as a matter of law or where the successive petition with supporting

documentation is insufficient to justify further proceedings.” Smith, 2014 IL

115946, ¶ 35.

¶6 “A defendant shows cause ‘by identifying an objective factor that impeded his or her

ability to raise a specific claim during his or her initial post-conviction proceedings.’ ” People v.

Wrice, 2012 IL 111860, ¶ 48 (quoting 725 ILCS 5/122-1(f) (West 2010)). In other words, to

establish “cause” a defendant must articulate why he could not have discovered the claim earlier

through the exercise of due diligence. People v. Wideman, 2016 IL App (1st) 123092, ¶ 72. A

defendant shows prejudice by demonstrating that the claim so infected the trial that the resulting

conviction or sentence violated due process. Wrice, 2012 IL 111860, ¶ 48. It is defendant’s

burden to establish a prima facie showing of both cause and prejudice in order to be granted

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leave before further proceedings on his claims can follow. See People v. Bailey, 2017 IL 121450,

¶ 24.

¶7 In this court, defendant first contends that he should have been permitted to file his

successive postconviction petition because the 80-year sentence imposed on his conviction for a

crime committed while he was a juvenile constitutes a de facto life sentence and violates the eighth

amendment of the United States Constitution. Defendant acknowledges that he may qualify for

day-for-day credit, and accordingly, he will be required to serve at least 50%, or 40 years, of his

80-year sentence. Defendant contends that his sentence is a de facto life sentence, triggering the

protections of Miller and requiring a sentencing court to consider defendant’s youth and attendant

characteristics in fashioning a sentence. Defendant further contends that the circuit court did not

consider such factors, and accordingly, this court should remand his case for a new sentencing

hearing.

¶8 In People v. Buffer, 2019 IL 122327, the supreme court reviewed the circuit court’s denial

of the defendant’s postconviction petition, in which the defendant argued that his 50-year prison

sentence, imposed for a crime he committed when he was 16 years old, violated the eighth

amendment because it was a de facto life sentence. The supreme court considered where the line

should be drawn at which a sentence constitutes a de facto life sentence and concluded that “a

prison sentence of 40 years or less imposed on a juvenile offender does not constitute a de facto

life sentence in violation of the eighth amendment.” Id. ¶ 41. Accordingly, the court found that the

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