People v. Helgesen

Defendant, Sean R. Helgesen, appeals the summary dismissal under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Act) (725 ILCS 5/122 — 1 et seq. (West 2002)) of his “Motion to Vacate Void Judgment.” Defendant contends that the trial court should have treated the motion as a petition under section 2 — 1401 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (735 ILCS 5/2 — 1401 (West 2002)), which contains no provisions for summary dismissal. In the alternative, he contends that we must reverse the dismissal because the court failed to adhere to the procedural requirements of the Act. Because we hold that the court had…