Defendant was found guilty but mentally ill of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 100 years in prison. On appeal, defendant argued that the trial court erred when it denied his request for a continuance to obtain a third sanity evaluation, when it allowed the State to access the sanity report of an expert originally retained by defendant and permitting the State to call that expert as a rebuttal witness, and when it re-read the implicit bias jury instruction to the jury. The appellate court reversed and remanded, finding that the trial court erred when it allowed the State to elicit the opinions and notes of a defense expert who was not called by the defendant to testify at trial because the opinions were protected by attorney-client privilege. (BRENNAN and PETERSON, concurring)
Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Expert Testimony