People v. Bartall

In the early morning hours of December 30, 1979, the defendant, Kurt Bartall, fired two shots from his automobile as it traveled along Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. One of these shots killed a young woman who was standing in an adjacent parking lot. In a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County the defendant was convicted of murder and armed violence and was sentenced to imprisonment for 20 years.

The appellate court, with one justice dissenting, reversed the defendant’s conviction. (105 Ill. App. 3d 867.) The majority of the appellate court concluded that it was reversible error for the…