Attempted Murder Defense in Chicago and Across Illinois

An attempted murder charge usually follows a shooting or a stabbing in which the person who was hurt survived. The arrest often comes quickly on an identification made at the scene or from video, and the first court date is within days. Attempted first degree murder is a charge on which the State can ask the court to hold the person until trial.

The charge rests on a claim about the person’s mind: that they meant to kill. That is what separates attempted murder from aggravated battery with a firearm or aggravated discharge of a firearm, which can describe the same shooting, and it is where much of the defense is fought.

Bedi & Singer defends people charged with attempted murder at the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th and California, in Cook County’s suburban courthouses, in the collar counties, and in courts across Illinois.

A person commits attempt in Illinois by taking a substantial step toward an offense with the intent to commit that specific offense (720 ILCS 5/8-4). For attempted murder, that means a specific intent to kill. Intent to cause great bodily harm is not enough, though the State will argue that firing a gun at someone shows exactly what the person intended.

Attempted first degree murder is sentenced as a Class X felony: 6 to 30 years (up to 60 with an extended term), with no probation, and at least 85 percent of the sentence must be served. Where the State proves a firearm, years are added: 15 for carrying one, 20 for personally firing it, and 25 years to natural life where that shot caused great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement, or killed someone else. For a person under 18 at the time of the offense, the court may decline to add those years. Where the person attacked was a police officer, firefighter, government-employed paramedic, or correctional employee performing their duties, the range becomes 20 to 80 years. For a police officer, firefighter, or paramedic, this applies only if the defendant knew or should have known that the person held that job.

There is no offense of attempted second degree murder in Illinois. A narrow sentencing provision lowers the range to that of a Class 1 felony where the defendant proves a sudden and intense passion from serious provocation and that any death would have been negligent or accidental. Self-defense and defense of others are complete defenses: once the evidence raises the issue, the State must disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court decides pretrial release at a hearing held at the first appearance, or within 48 hours of it if a continuance is granted. The State must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the proof is evident or the presumption great, that release would pose a real and present threat, and that no conditions could answer it. The State can also seek detention on the ground that the person is highly likely to flee to avoid prosecution. Bedi & Singer prepares for that hearing as for a trial.

Discovery follows: police reports, body-camera and surveillance video, the medical records of the person who was hurt, firearms evidence, phone and location records, and every statement the client made. Many attempted murder cases begin with a show-up identification minutes after the event or a photo array days later. How each was conducted, and whether the arrest and the statements survive a motion to suppress, are examined before trial.

The State’s case usually rests on a few pieces of evidence, and the defense tests each one:

• The identification: a show-up at the scene, a photo array, lighting, distance, and what each witness actually saw
• Intent: where the shots went, how many were fired, from what range, and what was said before and after
• The account of the person who was hurt, against the video, the physical evidence, and earlier statements
• Firearms evidence, gunshot residue, DNA, cell-site data, and the timeline the video supports
• Self-defense and defense of others, and who the first aggressor was

This often calls for independent experts: a firearms examiner, a digital forensics analyst, a medical expert.

Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer work together on all Bedi & Singer’s attempted murder cases.

Bedi & Singer prepares every attempted murder case as one that may be tried, keeps the client and the people close to them informed about what is happening and why, and makes every decision, including whether to try the case to a judge or a jury, with the client.