MOUNT VERNON - Madison County Circuit Judge Kyle Napp correctly imposed a mandatory life sentence on murderer Arthur Smallwood, Fifth District appellate judges ruled on Aug. 30.
Justices Barry Vaughan, Judy Cates and Michael McHaney found Smallwood failed to plead that mental illness rendered him less culpable or that he could achieve rehabilitation.
In 2018, Smallwood, age 54, put Alton’s Best Cabs driver Jon-Eric Andersson in a choke hold and stabbed him at least 18 times.
His counsel Calvin Fuller of Granite City moved for determination of his fitness for trial.
Napp ordered evaluation and Belleville psychologist Daniel Cuneo diagnosed malingering, depression, and disorders from cocaine, alcohol and cannabis.
He found Smallwood fit to stand trial and after a hearing Napp agreed.
Prior to trial in 2019, State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons filed notice of intent to seek a mandatory life sentence on the basis of two prior Class X felony convictions.
Jurors convicted Smallwood, Napp imposed mandatory life, and he petitioned for relief.
By hand he wrote that the sentence violated a clause in the Illinois Constitution requiring proportionate penalties.
Smallwood wrote that it violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.
He wrote that he was 19 at the time of his prior convictions and didn’t fully understand or appreciate the consequences of his conduct.
He wrote that those convictions should not be used against him based on what is known about juvenile and young adult brains.
Smallwood signed an affidavit stating he was molested, his mother beat him, men beat her, and he saw her boyfriend have sex with his 12 year old aunt.
He stated he experimented with drugs and alcohol at 13 and impregnated a girl at 15. He stated he suffered from schizo affective disorder.
Napp denied the petition, finding his childhood circumstances didn’t qualify him for relief.
She found nothing in the petition that would change the sentence if she knew it at the time.
Smallwood appealed and the sentence stood.
Vaughan wrote that a penalty violates the proportional penalty clause if it is cruel, degrading, or shocking to the moral sense of a community.
“Statutes that address recidivism are constitutional exercises of the state’s police power to protect our society from habitually violent and heinous criminals,” Vaughan wrote.
He found legislators determined that a three time offender should be removed from society since he is impervious to rehabilitative efforts.
He found Third District judges upheld statutes designed to eradicate recidivism in 1984, 1991 and 1994.
He found a doctor’s diagnosis of schizo affective disorder was notably absent from the record.
He found Smallwood did not rely on diagnoses of other mental illnesses on appeal.
He found that even assuming a self reported disorder was sufficient to establish mental illness, nothing in the record or his petition showed it made him less culpable.
He found the petition provided symptoms of schizo affective disorder as listed on WebMD but no evidence that he incurred them.
He found mental illness mitigates a sentence when it substantially affects a defendant’s ability to understand the nature of his actions or conform to requirements of the law.
He found Smallwood failed to explain how his illness affected those abilities.
He found the Illinois Supreme Court explained that information about mental or psychological impairments is not inherently mitigating.
“More importantly, nothing in the petition explains or supports the conclusion that schizo affective disorder, and the disorder with respect to defendant, was treatable," Vaughan wrote.
He found nothing in the record that indicated a success rate or how treatment would affect his disorder or his future behavior.
He found Smallwood was aware of his issues but didn’t comply with treatment.