People v. Cook

A jury found the defendant, Thomas Cook, guilty of first-degree murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 9 — 1(a)), rejecting his assertion of the presence of the mitigating factors of both serious provocation and unreasonable belief of justification. The trial court sentenced him to a term of 25 years in the Department of Corrections. The defendant appeals, raising five issues for our review: (1) whether the statutory procedure requiring the defendant to prove the existence of mitigating factors in order to be convicted of second-degree murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 9 — 2),…