Alvarez v. Gaughan
Annotate this CaseCastleberry was convicted of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/12-14(a)(8)) based on separate contacts with the victim. The state argued that Castleberry was subject to a mandatory 15-year sentencing enhancement on each conviction because the crimes were committed while Castleberry was armed with a firearm. When added to the mandatory minimum term of six years’ imprisonment for each offense, the enhancements required a mandatory minimum term of 21 years’ imprisonment on each conviction. The court held that the legislature had intended the enhancement to be applied only once under the circumstances and sentenced Castleberry to a nine-year term on each conviction, adding the 15-year enhancement to only one sentence, for a total term of 33 years’ imprisonment. The appellate court rejected Castleberry’s constitutional challenge to the enhancement and, invoking the then-extant “void sentence rule,” remanded for resentencing. That rule stated that ‘[a] sentence which does not conform to a statutory requirement is void.’ The Illinois Supreme Court granted a mandamus petition, requiring the circuit court to sentence Castleberry with the mandatory 15-year firearm enhancement imposed on each of his convictions. The court had abolished the “void sentence rule” as a means to correct sentences that do not comport with statutory mandates four days before the state’s filing. The court rejected Castleberry’s contentions that the relief sought was barred by the doctrine of laches and that a conflict in statutes defeats a “clear right to relief.”
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