People v. Mitchell

PRESIDING JUSTICE SCARIANO

delivered the opinion of the court:

Maurice Mitchell (Maurice) appeals from what he claims was the circuit court’s improper dismissal of his post-conviction petition as “frivolous or *** patently without merit” more than 30 days after it was filed and docketed. He maintains that the allegations in his petition should have been given the benefit of an evidentiary hearing: (1) that the court before which he was convicted of murder erroneously refused to instruct the jury that it could find that he had used force in defense of himself, or that he could be guilty of…