People v. Zaya

131 Ill.2d 284 (1989)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Three young men were brutally murdered on the front porch of a building on Chicago's northwest side early on the morning of July 2, 1983. During the investigation that followed from the sound of the gunshots, a Detective Atkins was directed to look for two Latina females. A car containing four males pulled in front of Atkins car and apart from the fact that one of the males continued to look over his shoulder at the Atkins' car he thought nothing of it. Atkins found two Latina females in another car but concluded that they were too old to have done the shooting. Upon his return to the crime scene, Atkins was informed that the suspects may have been in the car that had pulled in front of him. Atkins described the car as a light blue Plymouth Sebring with a possible license plate number of XND 405. Atkins was hypnotized and revealed that the license plate number was NXJ 402. The actual license plate number was NXJ 420. This testimony came out during trial and D objected. D was convicted and appealed. The appellate court agreed that the testimony should not have come in, but it also found that it was harmless error.