People v. Coulter

We revisit this familiar case at the direction of the Illinois Supreme Court. Defendant, Dwayne Coulter, filed a pro se petition for relief under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (the Act) (725 ILCS 5/122 — 1 et seq. (West 2000)), alleging that he was denied his right to the effective assistance of counsel at a 1998 hearing held to review defendant’s claims under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69, 106 S. Ct. 1712 (1986). The trial court summarily dismissed defendant’s petition as frivolous and patently without merit, and on January 16, 2004, this court vacated that dismissal and…