Background
Prince Patterson was found guilty after a 2013 bench trial of unlawful possession of a firearm by a street gang member and four counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. The circuit court merged all counts into the unlawful-possession count and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
In August 2024, Patterson filed a pro se motion asserting that his aggravated-unlawful-use-of-a-weapon conviction was void because the statute was unconstitutional. The circuit court vacated two counts but left three counts intact, then denied Patterson’s motion to reconsider on November 22, 2024. Patterson placed a notice of appeal in institutional mail on January 28, 2025, and appointed counsel later moved for leave to file a late notice of appeal. The appellate court initially granted that request.
The Court’s Holding
The appellate court construed Patterson’s underlying filing as a petition under section 2-1401 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure. Its substance challenged a judgment as void based on an allegedly unconstitutional statute, and the circuit court’s treatment of the filing was inconsistent with first-stage proceedings under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act. Because section 2-1401 provides a civil remedy, the civil appellate deadlines in Illinois Supreme Court Rule 303 governed.
The court held that it lacked jurisdiction because neither Patterson’s notice of appeal nor counsel’s motion for leave to file a late notice was timely. The notice-of-appeal deadline expired December 23, 2024, and the deadline to seek leave for a late notice expired January 22, 2025. Even treating Patterson’s January 28 mailing date as the filing date under the incarcerated-litigant mailbox rule, it was too late. The court therefore vacated its earlier order granting leave as improvidently granted and dismissed the appeal without reaching Patterson’s constitutional claims.
Key Takeaways
- A postjudgment filing’s substance, rather than its caption, determines whether it should be treated as a section 2-1401 petition.
- Appeals from section 2-1401 proceedings are governed by the civil deadlines in Illinois Supreme Court Rule 303.
- The mailbox rule did not save Patterson’s appeal because his stated mailing date fell after both the ordinary appeal deadline and the deadline to seek leave for a late appeal.
Why It Matters
The order underscores that timely filing a notice of appeal is a jurisdictional requirement that an Illinois appellate court cannot excuse, even when the appellant allegedly received delayed notice of the circuit court’s ruling. It also illustrates how classifying a collateral filing as a section 2-1401 petition determines the appellate rules and deadlines that apply.
Because the court dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, it expressed no view on Patterson’s arguments that the firearm statutes were facially unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The order was issued under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 23 and is nonprecedential except in the limited circumstances permitted by that rule.