The People of the State of Illinois, Appellant v. Dione Alexander, Appellee

Summary

The Illinois Supreme Court held that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing Dione Alexander to 24 years' imprisonment for aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful use of weapons stemming from a 2005 high-school hallway shooting. Although an earlier appellate remand had corrected the trial court's double-counting of the school-location factor, the resentencing court grounded the upper-range sentence in lawful statutory aggravators and the seriousness of the offense without relying on that improper factor. The court concluded that the appellate panel exceeded its reduction authority by reweighing the sentencing factors and substituting its judgment for the trial court's, and it therefore reversed the appellate court's judgment and reinstated the 24-year sentence.