Within 14 days after the notice of appeal is filed, the appellant and the appellee may file a designation of additional portions of the circuit court record to be included in the record on appeal. Thereupon the clerk shall include those portions in the record on appeal. Additionally, upon motion of a party, the court may allow photographs of exhibits to be filed as a supplement to the record on appeal, in lieu of the exhibits themselves, when such photographs accurately depict the exhibits themselves. There is no distinction between the common law record and the report of proceedings, for the purpose of determining what is properly before the reviewing court.
Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 608
Committee Comments
(Revised July 3, 1986)
Paragraph (a)
This is former Rule 27(8) with certain changes. Former Rule 27(8) was derived from section 121 -- 7(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 and earlier Rule 65 -- 2, repealed effective January 1, 1964.
Paragraph (a) provided for the appellant, within 14 days of the filing of the notice of appeal, to file a designation of portions of the circuit court record to be included in the record on appeal. The appellee, within seven days thereafter, could file a designation of additional portions to be included. The paragraph further provided for the clerk to prepare the record on appeal containing the designated portions of the circuit court record or, if no designation was filed, to prepare a mandatory record containing the documents specified in the paragraph.
In 1986, paragraph (a) was amended to require the immediate preparation of a mandatory record on appeal, in all cases, upon the filing of the notice of appeal, without the need for any designation by the parties. The amendment expanded the portions of the circuit court record which must be included in the record on appeal and allows the parties to designate additional portions to be included.
Subsection (9) of paragraph (a) requires that the record on appeal in all cases where a sentence of death is imposed include a transcript of all proceedings regarding the selection of the jury. This subsection also requires the court reporters in other cases to take notes of the jury-selection proceedings, but the transcription of such notes is required only when requested by a party. The "proceedings regarding the selection of the jury" include the procedures set forth by the circuit court for the selection of the jury and for the exercise of peremptory challenges, the questions asked of prospective jurors, the responses thereto, questions refused by the court, along with objections, argument and rulings thereon.
Subsection (10) of paragraph (a) requires that all exhibits offered at trial and sentencing be included in the record on appeal. An exception to this requirement was added for exhibits, other than photographs, which are large, bulky or otherwise do not fit easily in the record on appeal. Examples of such exhibits include weapons, clothing, narcotics, charts and models. The court, however, should order such exhibits to be included in the record on appeal when they are relevant to the determination of an issue on appeal or needed for an understanding of the case. Photographs offered as exhibits are to be included in the record on appeal.
Paragraph (a), as amended in 1986, allows the filing of a supplemental record on appeal containing photographs of exhibits. The use of the photographs in lieu of the exhibits themselves should be permitted when the exhibits are large, bulky or otherwise do not fit easily in the record on appeal and the photographs of the exhibits are sufficient for the determination of the issues on appeal and for an understanding of the case.
Photographs of oversized photographic exhibits are permitted under this rule.
Paragraph (d)
Paragraph (d), as amended in 1979, applies to criminal cases the same time limitations on extensions of time to file the report of proceedings in the trial court and to file the record on appeal in the reviewing court imposed in civil cases by Rules 323(e) and 326.
The 1981 amendment places the sole authority for granting extensions of time under paragraph (d) in the reviewing court. (The trial judges remain vested with the authority to grant extensions in a narrow class of cases pursuant to Rule 608(c).)
The provision permitting a grant of an extension of time to file the report of proceedings or the record on appeal within 6 months after the entry of the judgment, added in 1969, was deleted by the 1979 amendments.
Commentary
(September 22, 1997)
This rule is amended to provide for the preparation and filing of a duplicate record in a case in which a death sentence is imposed so that the parties may use the duplicate in any collateral proceedings. The availability of a certified, duplicate record will be advantageous in situations in which post-conviction proceedings must be commenced in the trial court within the time prescribed by the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (725 ILCS 5/122-1 (West 1996)) or other papers must be filed in those proceedings and the direct appeal still is pending in the Supreme Court, rendering the record unavailable.
Photographic exhibits need not be duplicated for purposes of this amendment.
Paragraph (c) also is amended to eliminate the shorter record-filing time for capital cases, consistent with practice.
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