People v. Utinans

• Decision Date: 31 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-996,80-996
• Citation: 61 Ill.Dec. 347,105 Ill.App.3d 452,434 N.E.2d 500
• Parties: , 61 Ill.Dec. 347 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Guntis UTINANS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 500

434 N.E.2d 500

105 Ill.App.3d 452, 61 Ill.Dec. 347

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Guntis UTINANS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 80-996.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Third Division.

March 31, 1982.

Bernard Carey, State's Atty. (Marcia B. Orr, Richard Burke, Frank Castiglione, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.

Michael B. Cohen, Steven Ackerman, Abraham N. Goldman, Chicago, for defendant-appellee.

McGILLICUDDY, Justice:

This is an appeal by the State from an order of the circuit court of Cook County which reduced the sentences of the defendant, Guntis Utinans.

Following a jury trial the defendant was sentenced to three concurrent terms of 15 to 30 years in the penitentiary for conviction of rape, aggravated kidnapping, and deviate sexual assault. On direct appeal this court affirmed defendant's convictions and sentences. (People v. Utinans (1977), 55 Ill.App.3d 306, 13 Ill.Dec. 53, 370 N.E.2d 1080.) We expressly rejected defendant's argument that he was penalized by the imposition of an excessive sentence for exercising his right to a jury trial while certain co-defendants who pled guilty received less severe sentences. This court noted that the sentences imposed upon the defendant were fully justified by the evidence adduced at trial and the total lack of remorse on the part of the defendant. 55 Ill.App.3d at 325, 13 Ill.Dec. 53, 370 N.E.2d 1080.

Subsequently the defendant filed a petition for post-conviction relief in which he alleged several violations of his constitutional rights. Following an evidentiary hearing the trial court denied defendant's request for relief on March 17, 1980. On March 25, 1980, the defendant filed a document entitled "Motion pursuant to Post-Conviction Act and Section 72" in which he asked the trial court to reduce his sentence. The defendant argued that the co-defendants who pled guilty received less severe sentences than he and that this court's holding on the issue of an excessive sentence was erroneous.

At the hearing on this motion the trial court discussed the facts of another trial over which he had presided, People v. Carroll (1977), 49 Ill.App.3d 387, 7 Ill.Dec. 247, 364 N.E.2d 408. In Carroll two defendants were convicted of rape, aggravated kidnapping and deviate sexual assault and sentenced to three concurrent terms of 15 to 30 years. Certain co-defendants had pled guilty and received less severe sentences. ¹ On appeal the defendants, like the defendant in the instant case, asserted that they were penalized because they elected to go to trial. Although the appellate court rejected this claim, the court reduced the defendants' sentences in response to their argument that their sentences were excessive. This case was decided prior to People v. Perruquet (1977), 68 Ill.2d 149, 11 Ill.Dec. 274, 368 N.E.2d 882, in which our supreme court held that absent an abuse of discretion by the trial court, a sentence may not be altered upon review.

In referring to People v. Carroll, the trial court noted that the reviewing court reduced the sentences in Carroll while this court refused to do so in the instant case. The trial court commented:

"I don't mean the (defendant's) sentence in my judgment was improper. I thought it was an appropriate sentence or I would not have imposed it. But when Utinans, who received the identical sentence, did not get a reduction from the appellate court, it struck me as not fair * * *. I thought it inequitable that some fellows should have their sentences reduced and not the others."

The trial court granted defendant's motion and reduced his sentence to terms of 8 to 16 years, and the State appeals.

The Post-Conviction Hearing Act provides a remedy for imprisoned persons who claim that in their trials substantial federal or state constitutional rights were violated. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1979, ch. 38, pars. 122-1 through 122-7; People v. Stewart (1978), 66 Ill.App.3d 342, 23 Ill.Dec. 152, 383 N.E.2d 1179, cert. denied 441 U.S. 907, 99 S.Ct. 1998, 60 L.Ed.2d 376.) Proceedings under this Act are not intended to be a device by which issues that could have been raised and considered on the original appeal of a conviction can again be considered or by which issues that have in fact been considered on appeal from the original conviction can be relitigated. People v. Logan (1978), 72 Ill.2d 358, 21 Ill.Dec. 186, 381 N.E.2d 264.

In his second petition for post-conviction relief, the defendant...