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6th Amendment Violation

By: Derek Hawkins//August 17, 2016//

6th Amendment Violation

By: Derek Hawkins//August 17, 2016//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Maurice Evans v. Stephanie Dorethy

Case No.: 15-3531

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 6th Amendment Violation

Appellant states improper factual element in appeal.

“The problem with Evans’s reasoning, however, is that he cannot establish a Sixth Amendment violation because “independent felonious intent” is not an element of Illinois felony murder. The cases on which Evans relies do not require that the prosecution supply evidence of independent felonious in‐ tent. Rather, they require an inquiry into whether two events—the predicate felony and the resulting death—are so closely connected that the prosecution must prove murder in‐ stead of felony murder. “[W]here the acts constituting forcible felonies arise from and are inherent in the act of murder itself, those acts cannot serve as predicate felonies for a charge of felony murder.” Morgan, 758 N.E.2d at 836–38. In Morgan, a teenager who shot his grandparents was convicted of felony murder based on the predicate crimes of aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a firearm. Id. at 818–19, 838. The courtruled that the state should not have charged felony murder because the predicate felonies and the murders depended on the same acts. Permitting the state to prosecute felony murder in that situation would enable the state to charge all fatal shootings as felony murder, eliminating the need to prove intent to kill.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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