Roderick Smith’s conviction for attempt murder of a Chicago Police Officer is reversed and remanded for a new trial in this opinion by JUSTICE NEVILLE because of three comments in the State’s rebuttal argument in a trial before the Hon. Judge Lacy. These comments all questioned the lack of evidence that one would have “expected” to come from the defense…to wit “Have you heard any evidence that he didn’t know they were the police?”
However, the Appellate Court did not reach defendant’s conviction for aggravated battery because the notice of appeal (NOA) “lists only the attempt murder conviction from which he takes this appeal. Therefore, we have no jurisdiction to review the aggravated battery conviction.” [!!!]
Please note that it seems that the State Appellate Defender is aware of this strict jurisdictional issue and regularly is granted leave by the reviewing courts to amend NOAs to reflect all the convictions/judgments on the mittimus. The above appeal was handled by private counsel. Good practice requires listing all counts on the NOA upon which judgment was entered against the defendant. Read all about it here at People v. Roderick Smith, No .1-07-2101, 5/6/2010.