Hearsay Bill Hits Snag

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will veto a bill that drastically changes the inclusion of hearsay evidence in murder trials. The bill would allow for the inclusion of hearsay evidence in a murder trial if the prosecution could prove in a pretrial hearing that the witness was unable to appear to testify because the defendant made them disappear. This bill has been passed by the Illinois Legislature and sent to the Governor for his signature, but the legislature failed to put an effective date in the legislation. As a result of this oversight, the bill would not take effect until July 1, 2009. This is not acceptable to Governor Blagojevich and he is considering vetoing the bill and sending it back to the legislature to add an effective date that would be much sooner. It seems as if this was a mistake by the legislature and will not be difficult for the legislature to fix this mistake. It is virtually certain that this bill will be signed by Governor Blagojevich once the mistake is corrected.

The high profile case of former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson was a major inspiration for this new law.

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