People v. Tenner

The defendant, James Tenner, brings this appeal from an order of the circuit court of Cook County dismissing his post-conviction petition without an evidentiary hearing. Because the defendant received the death penalty for the underlying first-degree murder convictions, the present appeal lies directly to this court. 134 Ill. 2d R. 651(a).

The circumstances of the defendant’s offenses are fully set forth in our opinion on direct appeal and require only brief restatement here. The offenses in question occurred in South Chicago Heights on September 2, 1987, when the defendant shot and killed two…