People Ex Rel. Rice v. Cunningham

We granted leave to petitioner, the State’s Attorney of St. Clair County (hereinafter the State), to file an original action for mandamus (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 110A, par. 381(a)) seeking to compel respondents, three judges of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, to convene as a panel and hear evidence on the circumstances involved in the commission of multiple murders of which additional respondents, Daniel Lee Lott and Willie B. Cotton, had been found guilty following a jury trial. The principal respondents in this action are Lott and Cotton, since under the circumstances the respondent…