USE A GUN TO COMMIT A CRIME: GO TO JAIL. USE GUN NOT TO COMMIT A CRIME: GO TO JAIL

Court throws out challenges to gun law


October 6, 2005

BY RYAN KEITH ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement


SPRINGFIELD -- In a sharp rebuke of its own past reasoning, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday reversed years of court precedent on some challenges to longer prison sentences for serious crimes.

The court said it will no longer decide whether extended sentences are appropriate by comparing the punishments for sharply different crimes.

A legal scholar said the decision is likely to affect dozens of cases each year and the attorney general's office praised the move.

The about-face involves Kenneth Sharpe, a Cook County man convicted of murder and given an extended sentence because he used a gun.

Sharpe protested, arguing among other things that it was wrong to imprison someone longer for murder committed with a gun than for murder committed with some other weapon. The trial judge, following precedent set by the Supreme Court, agreed and threw out the sentence enhancements.

But the Supreme Court said comparing different crimes can lead to "absurd" conclusions and has become "problematic and unworkable" for the court system.

For example, under the court's previous reasoning, someone committing murder while simply possessing a gun should get a lighter sentence than someone who commits aggravated battery but uses a gun to do it.

"All that we have accomplished is to make the analysis more subjective and to put ourselves in a position in which we are improperly substituting our judgment for that of the Legislature," new Chief Justice Bob Thomas wrote.

The ruling still allows defendants to challenge extended sentences under two other criteria: whether the sentence is too cruel or degrading for the crime committed and whether the sentence is harsher than the penalty for committing another crime that includes the same elements.

The justices, without dissent, ordered a new hearing for Sharpe, as well as another man who made similar arguments in a separate robbery case.

Illinois Solicitor General Gary Feinerman said the attorney general's office is pleased because the ruling will eliminate confusion in this type of case.

A legal scholar predicted the decision will mean a "very substantial narrowing" in interpretation of the Illinois Constitution's requirement that punishments must be proportionate to a crime's severity.

"It sounds as though they are really cutting back, and this is something that a lot of lawyers used," said Ann Lousin, a professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

She said it's likely to affect dozens of cases a year.

Lawyers involved in the case acknowledged the ruling is a major change in court thinking. They said the biggest impact probably will be on challenges to the state's "15-20-Life" law.

That law, approved in 1999, provides extended sentences of 15 years up to life in prison for certain offenses with guns. Defendants have successfully challenged the law several times in recent years by comparing their sentences to those handed down for other crimes.

A state lawmaker who sponsored the law praised the court for ending that kind of challenge.

"The Illinois Supreme Court's decision written by the chief justice is a major decision confirming the Legislature's message to those who use a firearm in the commission of a crime that they will be locked up for a very, very long time," said Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale.

But if you carry a gun to defend yourself in Illinois it is called AGGRAVATED UNLAWFUL USE OF WEAPONS, a Class IV Felony and you STILL go to jail.


Court throws out challenges to gun law