Public Act 096-0337
 		





SB1668 Enrolled
LRB096 10712 RLC 20891 b






    AN ACT concerning criminal law.

 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:


 
    Section 5. The Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 is 
amended  by adding Section 115-10.7 as follows:
 
    (725 ILCS 5/115-10.7  new)
    Sec. 115-10.7. Admissibility of prior statements of an 
unavailable witness whose absence was wrongfully procured.
    (a) Legislative intent.  The Illinois General Assembly 
finds that no party to a criminal case who wrongfully procures 
the unavailability of a witness should be allowed to benefit 
from such wrongdoing by depriving the trier of fact of relevant 
testimony.
    (b) A statement of a witness is not excluded at the trial 
or hearing of any defendant by the hearsay rule or as a 
violation of any right to confront witnesses if the witness was 
killed, bribed, kidnapped, secreted, intimidated, or otherwise 
induced by a party, or one for whose conduct such party is 
legally responsible, to prevent the witness from being 
available to testify at such trial or hearing.
    (c) The party seeking to introduce the statement shall 
disclose the statement sufficiently in advance of trial or 
hearing to provide the opposing party with a fair opportunity 
to meet it.  The disclosure shall include notice of an intent to 
offer the statement, including the identity of the declarant.
    (d) Prior to ruling on the admissibility of a statement 
under this Section, the court shall conduct a hearing outside 
the presence of the jury.  During the course of the hearing the 
court may allow the parties to proceed by way of proffer.  
Except in cases where a preponderance of the evidence 
establishes that the defendant killed the declarant, the party 
seeking to introduce the statement shall be required to show by 
a preponderance of the evidence that the party who caused the 
unavailability of the witness did so with the intent or motive 
that the witness be unavailable for trial or hearing.  The court 
is not required to find that the conduct or wrongdoing amounts 
to a criminal act.
    (e) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to prevent 
the admissibility of statements under existing hearsay 
exceptions.

 

    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
becoming law.