People v. Crawford

Following a bench trial, defendant Cecil D. Crawford, also known as Dowell, was found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault. On October 12, 2000, he was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment. Defendant filed his timely notice of appeal on October 17, 2000.

On appeal, defendant contends that: (1) his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel was violated by the trial court’s repeated interruptions of defense counsel’s closing argument; (2) the trial court’s repeated interruptions of defense counsel’s closing argument revealed that the court was biased against him so as to…