Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

167 Ill. 2d 439

657 N.E.2d 1005

People v. Kilpatrick

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided October 26, 1995

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1995-10-26

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1995-10-26

How this case has been cited

Cited by 60 later decisions — most recently September 2025 · most notably 168 Ill. 2d 367 - People v. Jones (1995), 196 Ill. 2d 269 - People v. Wagener (2001)

60 state decisions

2901995200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

CHIEF JUSTICE BILANDIC,

¶1dissenting:

¶2The conclusion reached in this case by both the trial court and a unanimous appellate court is supported by both common sense and logic. At the original sentencing, the trial judge made the considered determination that the defendant deserved a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment. The trial judge accordingly entered a sentencing order which resulted in the defendant receiving a prison term of 15 years. The defendant moved for reconsideration. Upon reconsideration, the trial judge again imposed a sentence which resulted in the defendant receiving a prison term of 15 years. Thus, the defendant’s sentence was not increased, and no violation of our criminal code, nor of constitutional principles, occurred. The defendant clearly was not the victim of a vindictive judge who sought to punish the defendant more severely because he had attacked his original sentence. In fact, the majority acknowledges that the record will not support any suggestion that the trial judge was motivated by vindictiveness in his modification of the defendant’s sentence. 167 Ill. 2d at 447.

¶3For these reasons, I respectfully dissent. I also join in the dissent of my learned colleague, Justice James D. Heiple, and his reliance on Pythagoras.

¶4JUSTICE HEIPLE joins in this dissent.

/167/ill2d/439 · .json · Public domain