People v. Smith

Defendant, David Smith, appeals from an order of the circuit court of Cook County dismissing his amended petition for post-conviction relief without an evidentiary hearing. Because defendant was sentenced to death for the underlying convictions, his appeal lies directly to this court. 134 Ill. 2d R. 651(a). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

BACKGROUND

This court has previously set forth the evidence presented at defendant’s trial in our opinion on defendant’s first direct appeal. See People v. Smith, 152 Ill. 2d 229 (1992). Therefore, we discuss only…