People v. Mengedoht

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE RECHENMACHER

delivered the opinion of the court:

These two cases are consolidated for the purposes of this appeal since both present one identical issue — whether the mandatory parole term provided by the Unified Code of Corrections is unconstitutional...

William S. Mengedoht and John T. Hawes were both charged with the murder of Ace Anthony. Defendant Mengedoht entered a plea of guilty and defendant Hawes was tried and found guilty by a jury. Both were sentenced to a term in the penitentiary for not less than 20 nor more than 50 years.

Murder is a felony subject to an…