People v. R.D.

The State, in these consolidated appeals, asks this court to redefine and to limit the scope of the material witness rule (People v. Armstrong (1972), 51 Ill. 2d 471, 475-76; People v. Rogers (1922), 303 Ill. 578; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 114—11(d)). That rule requires the State to produce or explain the absence of all material witnesses connected with the taking of a confession whenever the voluntary nature of a confession is brought into question in a motion to suppress. The State also asks this court to overturn the appellate court decisions which reversed the defendants’…