People v. Duncan

In May 1980, the defendant, George Duncan, was convicted of murder and that conviction was affirmed on appeal. (People v. Duncan (1981), 97 Ill. App. 3d 896, 424 N.E.2d 67.) He was subsequently granted a new trial after petitioning for habeas corpus relief. Following his retrial, the court again convicted him of murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 9—1) and sentenced him to 36 years in prison. The defendant appeals the length of his sentence. We affirm.

At trial, it was undisputed that the defendant killed his live-in girlfriend, Yvette Searle. The defendant testified that when Yvette…