Supreme Court of Illinois

A decision holding that section 5-8-1(a)(1)(d)(i) which provides for a 15 year sentence enhancement for any defendant who commits first degree murder while armed with a firearm applies to an unarmed defendant found guilty of first degree murder on a theory of accountability is affirmed where: 1) when a defendant aids or abets another in committing a crime he is accountable and may be punished for any criminal act any of his codefendant had done in furtherance of the crime; 2) "the person" as used in subsection (i) includes "someone for whose conduct the person is accountable" and therefore it applies to defendant; 3) subsections (ii) and (iii) are limited only to those who actually discharged a firearm during a first degree murder and not to their codefendants; and 4) the term "personally" insulates subsections (ii) and (iii) from the application of the principles of accountability and common design and subsection (i) contains no such limiting language.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/05/2008
• Published 06/05/2008

Judges

Court

• Supreme Court of Illinois

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Michael J. Pelletier, Patricia Unsinn, Deputy Defenders, Emily E. Filpi, Assistant Appellate Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for appellant., Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield, Richard A. Devine, State's Attorney, Chicago (James E. Fitzgerald, Alan J. Spellberg, Hareena Meghani-Wakely, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.