People v. Prante

223 N.E.3d 160

2023 IL 127241

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellant,

v.John PRANTE, Appellee.

(Docket No. 127241)

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed May 18, 2023

Rehearing denied September 25, 2023

Appeal from the Appellate Court for the Fifth District; heard in that court on appeal from the Circuit Court of Madison County, the Hon. Neil T. Schroeder, Judge, presiding.

Kwame Raoul, Attorney General, of Springfield (Jane Elinor Notz, Solicitor General, and Katherine M. Doersch and Eric M. Levin, Assistant Attorneys General, of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Joshua Tepfer, of The Exoneration Project, of Chicago, and M. Chris Fabricant (pro hac vice), of The Innocence Project, Inc., of New York, New York, for appellee.

David E. Koropp and Anna R. Boshardy, of Fox Swibel Levin & Carroll LLP, of Chicago, for amici curiae Criminal Law Scholars, Scientists, and Statisticians, et al.

OPINION

JUSTICE CUNNINGHAM delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Petitioner John Prante filed a motion in the circuit court of Madison County seeking leave to file a successive postconviction petition challenging his conviction for murder. In his motion and accompanying petition, Prante asserted that recent scientific studies had fully discredited forensic bite mark opinion testimony that was introduced by the State at trial. Prante raised a claim of actual innocence, a separate due process claim, and three additional claims. The circuit court denied Prante leave to file all claims.

¶ 2 On appeal, the appellate court reversed the judgment of the circuit court denying Prante leave to file his due process claim and affirmed the judgment of the circuit court denying Prante leave to file his claim of actual innocence. The appellate court did not address Prante’s remaining claims. 2021 IL App (5th) 200074, 449 Ill.Dec. 950, 180 N.E.3d 875. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the judgment of the appellate court allowing Prante to file his due process claim and affirm the judgment of the appellate court denying Prante leave to file his claim of actual innocence. We remand the cause to the appellate court to address Prante’s remaining claims.

¶ 3 BACKGROUND

¶ 4 Following a jury trial in the summer of 1983, Prante was found guilty of the murder of 22-year-old Karla Brown. Evidence at trial established the following.

¶ 5 On June 20, 1978, Brown and her fiancé, Mark Fair, spent the day moving into their newly purchased home in Wood River, Illinois. Friends of the couple helped with the move and stayed into the evening for dinner and drinks.

¶ 6 That same day, Prante and his friend, John Scroggins, were next door at the home of Paul Main, drinking and partying. At trial, Scroggins testified that he saw Brown, whom he knew from school, and said hello to her outside the house. He also introduced her to Prante. The three spoke briefly, and Scroggins and Prante then returned to Main’s house. Thereafter, according to Scroggins, Prante began talking about Brown, telling Scroggins "how good" she looked and how he was particularly interested in her "chest." Scroggins stated that Prante showed "more interest" in Brown than he had with other women, seemed to be excited about her, and kept bringing the conversation back to her. When Prante drove Scroggins home later that evening, he again talked about Brown. Prante was also "upset" and "irritated" that he could not join the gathering of friends at Brown’s house.

¶ 7 The next morning, on June 21, 1978, Fair went to work, leaving Brown home alone. Sometime between 10 and 11 a.m., Brown spoke with Fair’s mother on the phone. The conversation ended when Brown said that someone was at the door.

¶ 8 At approximately 10:45 a.m., Edna Moses was driving with her six-year-old grandson, Eric Moses, on the street where Brown lived. Realizing that she was heading in the wrong direction, Edna pulled into the driveway of Brown’s house to turn around. As she did so, she saw a man and a woman standing near the garage, talking. The woman, who matched Brown’s description, turned and walked toward the house with the man following after her. Eric testified that he also saw the man and woman. He stated that the woman was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with flowers on it and that she "sort of got mad at" the man.

¶ 9 At approximately 11 a.m., Brown’s friend Debbie Davis stopped by Brown’s house to visit. She knocked on the front and back doors but left when there was no answer. She did not see anyone on the porch next door. Between noon and 2:30 p.m., Davis and two other friends phoned Brown’s home but, again, got no answer.

¶ 10 Fair returned home from work at approximately 5 p.m. with his friend Tom Fiegenbaum. Fair went into the house, calling for Brown. He made his way to the basement, where he saw the room in disarray and blood "all over" the floor and couch. As he was turning to run back upstairs, he glanced into the basement laundry room and saw Brown’s body.

¶ 11 Brown was bent over at the waist, with her head and shoulders inside a metal barrel. The barrel, which had been used to store clothes, was filled with water. Brown’s hands were tied behind her back with a white extension cord, and two men’s socks were tied around her neck. She was wearing a heavy sweater that she normally wore only in the winter and was naked from the waist down. She also had large cuts on her forehead and chin. Fair immediately lifted Brown’s body out of the barrel and laid her on the floor. Fiegenbaum called the police, who arrived within a few minutes.

¶ 12 Wood River police chief Ralph Skinner testified that he arrived at Brown and Fair’s home at approximately 6 p.m. He stated that the area was secured and that no civilians were allowed in the home while the crime was being investigated.

¶ 13 Wood River police detective Charles Nonn arrived at the crime scene about 20 minutes after Chief Skinner. He stated that he saw two men, whom he identified as Prante and Main, standing in Main’s front yard.

¶ 14 Police investigating the crime scene found blood splattered on the basement floor and a bloodied couch cushion heavily saturated with water. A blood-stained tampon was found on a coffee table near the couch, and a stand of TV trays was overturned. A coffeepot from a coffee maker kept in the kitchen was found in the rafters of the laundry room. A fingerprint was recovered from the coffeepot, but it did not match Prante’s prints or anyone else whose prints were submitted for comparison.

¶ 15 Dr. Harry Parks performed an autopsy on Brown. At trial, he testified that she had suffered a fractured jaw, several bruises, and severe scraping around her throat that he believed was consistent with strangulation. She also had lacerations on her forehead, nose, and chin that were caused by a blunt object. Dr. Parks concluded that the cause of Brown’s death was strangulation and that the time of death was approximately 11:45 a.m., although that time could have varied by several hours.

¶ 16 Prante was interviewed by Wood River police chief Skinner on June 24, 1978. During this interview, Prante told Chief Skinner that he and Scroggins were at Main’s house the day before the murder. They saw Brown and Fair moving in with the help of several other people and then having a party. According to Prante, Scroggins said that he knew Brown and that they ought to go over to the party, but they never did.

¶ 17 Prante also told Chief Skinner that the next morning, around 8:30 a.m., he went to Main’s house to see if Main wanted to go to St. Louis to drop off some job applications. Main could not go, however, because he had a job painting a house, so Prante went by himself. Prante told Chief Skinner that, after dropping off the job applications, he "bummed around or stopped by somewhere." Prante said that he did not see Main again until approximately 6 p.m. at the home of his friend Harold Pollard. While there, Main told Prante that Brown had been killed.

¶ 18 On July 5, 1978, Prante was interviewed by Wood River police detective Eldon McEuen. During this interview, Prante again confirmed that he had been at Main’s house the day before the murder and had watched the party next door. Prante told Detective McEuen that he was "very much aware of this young lady that lived there" and that "he felt she was beautiful." Prante stated that he had wanted to join the party, but he had not been invited.

¶ 19 Prante also told Detective McEuen that the next morning he went to Main’s house to see if Main wanted to drop off job applications. However, Main was busy painting a house, so Prante went alone. When Detective McEuen asked Prante if he had returned to Main’s house after that, Prante said "he wasn’t sure if he did or didn’t."

¶ 20 Main’s aunt, Edna Vancil, lived across the street from Main. At trial, she testified that she saw Prante, whom she had known for eight or nine years, arrive at Main’s house between 9:30 and 10 a.m. on the day of the murder. She stated that Main had been painting a house but joined Prante on Main’s front porch. According to Ms. Vancil, the two sat on the porch, "smoking pot and drinking beer" and then "disappeared from eleven o’clock until al- most twelve o’clock." They then returned to the porch and stayed there until approximately 3 p.m. when Prante left. Ms. Vancil spoke to police on the night of the murder, but she was not asked any questions about Prante at that time.

¶ 21 Two years after the murder, in the summer of 1980, Wood River police investigators sent photographs of Brown’s body that had been taken at the crime scene and during the autopsy to Dr. Homer Campbell, a forensic dentist and expert in image enhancement. The photographs were black and white and were unsealed, meaning that there was no ruler or other measuring standard placed next to the body to establish the size of any wounds. After reviewing the photographs, Dr. Campbell informed the police that there were bite marks on Brown’s right collarbone. Prior to...