# People v. Kliner

> Illinois Supreme Court · December 3, 1998 · 185 Ill. 2d 81

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9707758

## Case

- **Full name:** The PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. RONALD KLINER, Appellant
- **Court:** Illinois Supreme Court
- **Decided:** December 3, 1998
- **Citations:** 185 Ill. 2d 81; 235 Ill. Dec. 667; 705 N.E.2d 850; 1998 Ill. LEXIS 1582
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Harrison
- **Judges:** Bilandic, Harrison
- **Cited by:** 521 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9707758

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- finding in light of the context of the proceeding, the prosecutor's comments about the defendant not testifying were not improper nor did the comments deprive the defendant of a fair trial where the jury was instructed that the defendant's decision not to testify was not to be…
- holding that “prosecutor’s comments during rebuttal argument regarding defense counsel’s ability to subpoena [a witness] were invited by defense counsel’s argument that the State failed to call [the person] as a witness”
- concluding that “prosecutor did not shift the burden of proof to defendant” by commenting on defendant’s subpoena power where prosecutor also “acknowledged that the burden of proof was on the State”
- holding that “[a] delay is occasioned by the defendant and charged to the defendant when the defendant’s acts caused or contributed to a delay resulting in the postponement of trial”
- noting that “the trial judge did not cite to any of the evidence here challenged”

## Opinion text

JUSTICE HARRISON, concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree that Ronald Kliner’s conviction should be upheld. For the reasons set forth in my dissent in People v. Bull, 185 Ill. 2d 179 (1998), however, 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 Kliner’s death sentence and remand the cause to the circuit court for imposition of a sentence other than death.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9707758. Public record. Not legal advice.