People v. Brown

PRESIDING JUSTICE RAKOWSKI

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial, defendant was found guilty of murder, but defense counsel filed a motion for a new trial which was granted. Defendant was retried before a jury and again found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to 40 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. The issues on appeal are: (1) whether defendant’s retrial was barred by double jeopardy under the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution; (2) whether the testimony of several of the State’s witnesses was prejudicial and constituted…