The People of the State of Illinois, Appellee v. Howard J. Hillier, Appellant

Summary

The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court's judgment upholding Howard J. Hillier's conviction for predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and his 20-year sentence, but on procedural-forfeiture grounds rather than the merits. The court held that Hillier forfeited both his claim that the trial court lacked authority to order a sex offender evaluation in a nonprobationable case and his fifth amendment claim based on the sentencing court's use of his compelled evaluation statements, because he raised neither in a timely objection or written postsentencing motion and never argued plain error. Because the record was silent on whether he received Miranda warnings before the evaluation, he could not show clear or obvious error on the face of the record. The court affirmed on grounds other than those adopted by the appellate court, which should not have reached the merits of the forfeited issues.