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.