People v. Yates

584 N.E.2d 1059, 223 Ill. App. 3d 110, 165 Ill. Dec. 625, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 2223
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 31, 1991
Docket5-89-0842
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 584 N.E.2d 1059 (People v. Yates) 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. Yates, 584 N.E.2d 1059, 223 Ill. App. 3d 110, 165 Ill. Dec. 625, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 2223 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

JUSTICE WELCH

delivered the opinion of the court:

The People of the State of Illinois appeal from an order of the circuit court of St. Clair County, entered November 15, 1989, which granted the post-conviction petition of defendant, Robert Yates, on the basis of the supreme court’s then-recent decision in People v. Reddick (1988), 123 Ill. 2d 184, 526 N.E.2d 141. The post-conviction court found that the jury at defendant’s trial for attempted murder had not been properly instructed regarding the State’s burden to prove the defendant’s lack of justification (self-defense) as an element of the offense where the defendant had presented some evidence of self-defense.

Defendant was charged by indictment, filed March 20, 1986, with the offenses of armed violence, aggravated battery and attempted murder arising from a shooting in a tavern on January 13, 1986. The victim, Rufus Burns, had been shot with a pistol four times in the legs and back by defendant. The victim and numerous eyewitnesses testified that the shooting was unprovoked and not preceded by any argument, fight or struggle. Defendant claimed that the shooting was done in self-defense following an argument during which the victim began to draw a gun. Defendant claimed that the shots were fired during his struggle with the victim to gain control over the gun.

Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of all three offenses. Judgment was entered on the verdicts on October 20, 1987, and defendant was sentenced to serve 10 years in the Department of Corrections.

Subsequently, defendant appealed his convictions for aggravated battery and armed violence, arguing that they must be vacated because based on the same physical act as was his conviction for attempted murder. This court agreed, and on March 8, 1989, defendant’s convictions for aggravated battery and armed violence were vacated. Defendant’s conviction for attempted murder was explicitly affirmed. People v. Yates (1989), 178 Ill. App. 3d 1163, 552 N.E.2d 822 (unpublished order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 23 (134 Ill. 2d R. 23)).

On April 10, 1989, defendant filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief. This petition was subsequently twice amended by defendant’s court-appointed counsel. The amended petition was dismissed except for the allegations that defendant’s trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to tender an instruction requiring the State to disprove that petitioner reasonably believed he was justified in the use of force which was intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm and that petitioner was denied due process and equal protection under the United States Constitution and Illinois Constitution due to the fact that the trial court incorrectly instructed the jury on attempted murder and self-defense pursuant to People v. Reddick.

On November 15, 1989, the circuit court of St. Clair County entered its order granting defendant’s post-conviction petition finding that, pursuant to People v. Reddick, failure to apprise the jury of the State’s burden of proof constitutes grave error and that Reddick should be applied retroactively to defendant’s case pursuant to People v. Erickson (1987), 117 Ill. 2d 271, 513 N.E.2d 367. The court vacated defendant’s conviction for attempted murder, did not order a new trial and did not address the previous vacation of defendant’s convictions for aggravated battery and armed violence based upon the same physical act as the attempted murder conviction.

The State argues on appeal that the post-conviction court erred in granting defendant’s post-conviction petition because the defendant waived any error with respect to the attempted murder/self-defense instructions by his failure to raise the issue on direct appeal; the decision in Reddick does not apply retroactively to defendant’s case pursuant to the supreme court’s decision in People v. Flowers (1990), 138 v. 2d 218, 561 N.E.2d 674; and, in any event, the decision in Reddick is inapplicable to the case at bar where no voluntary manslaughter instruction was given and the jury was adequately instructed on the State’s burden of proof with respect to justifiable use of force.

In People v. Reddick, the Illinois Supreme Court held, on direct appeal from defendants’ convictions, that the previous Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal, which stated that in order to sustain a charge of voluntary manslaughter the State must prove not only that defendant committed intentional or knowing homicide but also that when he did so he acted under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation by another or that when he did so he acted under an unreasonable belief that circumstances existed which would have justified the killing, erroneously stated the State’s burden of proof on the mitigating elements. The supreme court held that if a defendant in a murder trial presents sufficient evidence to raise issues which would reduce the charge of murder to voluntary manslaughter, then to sustain the murder conviction, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that those defenses are meritless and must also prove beyond a reasonable doubt the statutory elements of murder. Thus, the supreme court determined that the mitigating factors present in the offense of voluntary manslaughter are affirmative defenses which must be raised by defendant but rebutted beyond a reasonable doubt by the State. The State thus bears the burden of disproving, beyond a reasonable doubt, the existence of the mitigating states of mind for voluntary manslaughter once they are raised by defendant.

The situation in the instant case is different than that presented in Reddick. In the instant case, no homicide occurred so that the issue of voluntary manslaughter did not arise. Instead, the defendant was charged with attempted murder, to which he raised the defense of justifiable use of force or self-defense.

The defense of justifiable use of force has long been regarded as an affirmative defense (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 7 — 14), and pursuant to section 3 — 2 of the Criminal Code of 1961, the State bears the burden of ultimately disproving, beyond a reasonable doubt, any affirmative defense raised by the defendant (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, eh. 38, par. 3 — 2). (See People v. Sanchez (1981), 95 Ill. App. 3d 1006, 420 N.E.2d 680; People v. Tucker (1988), 176 Ill. App. 3d 209, 530 N.E.2d 1079.) The Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal, provide an instruction, to be used as the final proposition in the issues instruction for the offense charged, which states that, in order to sustain the charge, the State must prove that the defendant was not justified in using the force which he used. (Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal, No. 24 — 25.06A (2d ed. 1981) (hereinafter IPI).) This has been the law since the enactment of the Criminal Code of 1961, and it is the law which was in effect at the time of defendant’s trial.

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People v. Yates
584 N.E.2d 1059 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1991)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
584 N.E.2d 1059, 223 Ill. App. 3d 110, 165 Ill. Dec. 625, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 2223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-yates-illappct-1991.