A term of life in prison will stand for an Elmwood man convicted in 2016 for predatory criminal sexual assault of a 7-year old girl.
The Appellate Court of Illinois for the Third District handed down a unanimous decision on Monday that Danyel B.J. Smith’s constitutional rights were not violated in sentencing.
Smith argued that his sentence of life imprisonment given in Henry County Court was unconstitutional because he is intellectually disabled.
The Appellate court said while the record shows Smith may have an intellectual disability but it wasn’t established that he did.
Smith’s appeal cited a 2014 case in which a man received a life sentence for predatory criminal sexual assault, but the establishment of his intellectual disability enabled him to get a new sentencing hearing where he was ultimately given 50 years.
The court notes that Smith’s mother was recorded as saying Smith had “mental issues” and that a witness at the scene of the crime said he assumed Smith had a “mental disability” based on the way he talked.
They said that all falls short of establishing his disability.
Smith has documented diagnoses of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder but the Henry County Court ruled that “he knew what he was doing” in committing the act therefore he was not eligible to serve his sentence in a psychiatric care facility.
