People v. Cummings

              First Division
June 25, 2007
No. 1-05-2058
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
FLOYD CUMMINGS,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from
the Circuit Court
of Cook County
00 CR 26997-03
Honorable
Joseph G. Kazmierski, Jr.,
Judge Presiding.
PRESIDING JUSTICE McBRIDE delivered the opinion of the court:
Defendant, Floyd Cummings, appeals from the summary dismissal of his petition for
relief under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (the Act) (725 ILCS 5/122-1 et seq. (West 2004)).
He contends that his sentence of natural life imprisonment for armed robbery must be vacated
because it violates the proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution. For the reasons
that follow, we affirm.
We have sufficiently detailed the facts of this case in our previous opinion in defendant’s
direct appeal, People v. Cummings, 351 Ill. App. 3d 343 (2004), and will therefore recite only
those facts necessary to dispose of the issues raised here. Following a jury trial in 2002,
defendant was found guilty of armed robbery. The evidence adduced at defendant’s trial showed
that he and two codefendants robbed a Subway sandwich shop while armed with a baseball bat.
During the robbery, defendant used duct tape to bind the hands, legs, and eyes of a store
employee, and a codefendant testified that defendant used the baseball bat to smash the television
monitors and videocassette recorder in the store’s office. At sentencing, the trial court heard