People v. Lyles

We granted leave to appeal in this case in order to consider petitioner’s challenge to the appellate court’s dismissal of his appeal for want of prosecution. Pursuant to our supervisory authority, we now reinstate the appeal and remand the cause to the appellate court.

BACKGROUND

In 1982 a Cook County jury convicted petitioner Enice Lyles, Jr., of one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of first degree murder for the deaths, respectively, of Mary Thigpen and her sons Robert and Roderick Nichols, aged four and five. After a separate hearing he was sentenced to death for the murders…