Illinois General Assembly - Illinois Compiled Statutes

Updating the database of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) is an ongoing process. Recent laws may not yet be included in the ILCS database, but they are found on this site as Public Acts soon after they become law. For information concerning the relationship between statutes and Public Acts, refer to the Guide.

Because the statute database is maintained primarily for legislative drafting purposes, statutory changes are sometimes included in the statute database before they take effect. If the source note at the end of a Section of the statutes includes a Public Act that has not yet taken effect, the version of the law that is currently in effect may have already been removed from the database and you should refer to that Public Act to see the changes made to the current law.

720 ILCS 5/3-2

(720 ILCS 5/3-2) (from Ch. 38, par. 3-2)

Sec. 3-2.

Affirmative defense.

(a) "Affirmative defense" means that unless the State's evidence raises
the issue involving the alleged defense, the defendant, to raise the issue,
must present some evidence thereon.

(b) If the issue involved in an affirmative defense, other than insanity,
is raised then the
State must sustain the burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt as to that issue together with all the other elements of
the offense.  If the affirmative defense of insanity is raised, the defendant
bears the burden of proving by clear and convincing
evidence his insanity
at the time of the offense.

(Source: P.A. 89-404, eff. 8-20-95; 90-593, eff. 6-19-98.)