People v. O'CONNELL

PRESIDING JUSTICE McNULTY

delivered the opinion of the court:

John O’Connell, who pled guilty in 1992 to a murder charge, moved for evidentiary DNA testing in 2004. The trial court dismissed the motion sua sponte and without giving defendant an opportunity to argue in support of his motion. We hold that the statute that permits motions for postconviction DNA testing does not allow summary dismissal of such motions without notice to the defendant. Because defendant presented evidence that he had no memory of the offense when he pled guilty, and he pled guilty based solely on the strength of the…