People v. Heard

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided June 17, 1999

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1999-06-17

Relies on 185 Ill. 2d 179 - People v. Bull

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1999-06-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 188 later decisions — most recently October 2025 · most notably 204 Ill. 2d 159 - People v. Donoho (2003), 193 Ill. 2d 306 - People v. Williams (2000)

179 state decisions

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.

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JUSTICE HARRISON,

¶1concurring in part and dissenting in part:

¶2I agree that Heard’s convictions should not be disturbed, but would set aside his sentence of death. For the reasons set forth in my dissent in People v. Bull, 185 Ill. 2d 179 (1998), this state’s present death penalty law does not meet the requirements of the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amends. VIII, XIV) or article I, section 2, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 2). Accordingly, we should vacate Heard’s death sentence, and he should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. 720 ILCS 5/9—1(j) (West 1992). Because Heard has been found guilty of murdering more than one victim, the term of his imprisonment must be natural life. 730 ILCS 5/5—8—1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 1992).