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Docket No. 85897-Agenda 5-January 2000.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. TAFFORD LEE HOLMAN, Appellant.

Opinion filed April 20, 2000.

JUSTICE MILLER delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Tafford Lee Holman, brings this appeal from an order by the circuit court of Will County dismissing, without an evidentiary hearing, his second post-conviction petition. Because the defendant received the death penalty for one of the underlying offenses, the present appeal is to this court. 134 Ill. 2d R. 651(a). We now affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

The defendant was convicted of murder and other offenses and was sentenced to death in 1981. On direct appeal, this court affirmed certain of the defendant's convictions but vacated his death sentence and remanded the cause for a new sentencing hearing. People v. Holman, 103 Ill. 2d 133 (1984). The United States Supreme Court denied the defendant's petition for a writ of certiorari. Holman v. Illinois, 469 U.S. 1220, 84 L. Ed. 2d 347, 105 S. Ct. 1204 (1985). On remand, the defendant was again sentenced to death, and this court affirmed the defendant's sentence on appeal. People v. Holman, 132 Ill. 2d 128 (1989). The United States Supreme Court denied the defendant's petition for certiorari. Holman v. Illinois, 497 U.S. 1032, 111 L. Ed. 2d 804, 110 S. Ct. 3296 (1990). The defendant then filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the circuit court of Will County. The circuit court dismissed the petition, and this court affirmed the order of dismissal. People v. Holman, 164 Ill. 2d 356 (1995). The United States Supreme Court once again denied certiorari. Holman v. Illinois, 516 U.S. 976, 133 L. Ed. 2d 407, 116 S. Ct. 478 (1995). The defendant later instituted habeas corpus proceedings in federal court. The district court granted the defendant relief, on grounds unrelated to those raised here, but the court of appeals reversed that judgment. Holman v. Gilmore, 126 F.3d 876 (7th Cir. 1997). The United States Supreme Court denied review. Holman v. Page, ___ U.S. ___, 140 L. Ed. 2d 179, 118 S. Ct. 1169 (1998).

The defendant commenced the present proceeding on March 11, 1998. In a pro se petition, the defendant raised several interrelated grounds for relief, all of which were based on this court's decisions in People v. Brandon, 162 Ill. 2d 450 (1994), and its progeny, including People v. Gevas, 166 Ill. 2d 461 (1995), People v. Kinkead, 168 Ill. 2d 394 (1995), People v. Birdsall, 172 Ill. 2d 464 (1996), People v. Nitz, 173 Ill. 2d 151 (1996), and People v. Britz, 174 Ill. 2d 163 (1996). That line of authority equated the use of psychotropic drugs with a bona fide doubt of fitness to stand trial and recognized, as a matter of due process, a right to a fitness hearing in the provisions of section 104-21(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (725 ILCS 5/104-21(a) (West 1992)). When Brandon was decided, and at the time of this defendant's trial and sentencing hearing, section 104-21(a) provided, "A defendant who is receiving psychotropic drugs or other medications under medical direction is entitled to a hearing on the issue of his fitness while under medication." 725 ILCS 5/104-21(a) (West 1992). The statute has been amended twice since Brandon was decided (Pub. Act 89-428,