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| Ill. High Court Nixes Parts of Crime Law |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/03/2003 |
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The Illinois Supreme Court has struck down parts of two state laws designed to get tough on crime - one that helped convict drunken drivers and another that automatically sentenced armed criminals to additional prison time. The seven justices stressed in their rulings Friday that they were not overturning the reckless homicide and '15-20-Life' statues wholesale. The reckless homicide case involved Thomas Pomykala, who was involved in a 1999 drunken driving accident that killed a young girl. His blood-alcohol content was 0.26, more than three times the legal limit. Under the law, a drunken driver involved in a fatality was automatically considered reckless and charged with the crime. Pomykala argued that the burden of proof was put on the defendant, not prosecutors. The high court agreed and ordered a new trial for Pomykala. He had been sentenced to 14 years in prison. The advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving was critical of the ruling. 'It just makes it tougher to prove, not impossible,' said George Heroux, a spokesman for MADD. 'Now the prosecutors have to work a little harder to prove that someone who was drinking also was reckless.' In the '15-20-Life' ruling, the court declared unconstitutional technicalities that mandated longer sentences for less serious crimes if those crimes involved weapons. The law automatically adds 15 years, 20 years or 25 years to life, depending on how the weapon is used. The justices were asked to review the law after a county circuit court threw out first-degree murder charges against a man who shot and injured a man during an attempted robbery. 'The irony is that the person who fails to kill his victim stands to be sentenced to a much greater sentence than the person who actually causes the death of his victim,' Chief Justice Mary Ann McMorrow wrote. |
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