People v. Mitchell

Defendant, Sherry Lynne Mitchell, was convicted by a Jackson County jury of two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery of a child. She was sentenced to concurrent terms of 14 years for each of the four offenses. The appellate court vacated the convictions and sentences for attempted murder but affirmed the convictions and sentences for the aggravated battery of a child. (116 Ill. App. 3d 44.) We granted both the State’s and defendant’s petitions for leave to appeal and consolidated the cases.

The convictions stem from the defendant’s beatings of her 16-month-old…