People v. Latimore

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE SULLIVAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

The State appeals the dismissal of an indictment charging defendants with deviate sexual assault and the issue presented is whether, under all the facts and circumstances, the five month interim between the occurrence and the indictment deprived them of due process.

It appears that at Cook County Jail, tier E-2, during the midnight shift on September 8, 1976, four inmates (later identified as Charles Latimore, David Rogers, William McGhee, and Jessie Reed)1 escorted another inmate (Kenneth Skawinski) to an empty cell. Shortly…