People v. Willingham, 2020 IL App (1st) 162250

June 20, 1995 shooting in Chicago Heights: Willingham conceded he fired but claimed he acted in self-defense during a gang confrontation between Gangster Disciples and the Solid Fours. State witnesses (mostly Solid Four members/relatives) testified Willingham fired first at an unarmed crowd.
Jury convicted Willingham of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated battery with a firearm; sentences imposed and direct appeal affirmed.
Postconviction petition asserted (1) actual innocence based on a newly obtained affidavit from Jacobi Adams saying Jermaine Fleming shot at Willingham first; (2) ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failing to call three witnesses (Robert Johnson, Gentry Johnson, Tyrone Bennett) who would corroborate that Solid Fours were armed; (3) ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for not challenging jury instructions.
Circuit court dismissed the petition at the second stage; this appeal followed. The appellate court, after rehearing and considering People v. Robinson, found the new affidavit and failure-to-call-witnesses claims sufficient to make a "substantial showing" and remanded for a third-stage evidentiary hearing on actual innocence and ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
The court rejected the ineffective-assistance-of-appellate-counsel claim because the pattern jury instructions were legally appropriate and no plain error was shown.

Issue	People’s Argument	Willingham’s Argument	Held
Whether newly discovered affidavit supports a freestanding claim of actual innocence	Affidavit conflicts with trial testimony and is insufficiently conclusive to warrant relief	Jacobi Adams’s affidavit is newly discovered, material, noncumulative, and undermines confidence in the verdict because it corroborates Willingham’s self‑defense claim	Reversed dismissal as to actual innocence; affidavit places trial evidence in a different light and warrants an evidentiary hearing (per Robinson standard)
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for not calling three witnesses	Failure to call them does not create prejudice given trial record and physical evidence	Counsel’s omission was deficient or unexplained; their testimony would have directly contradicted State witnesses and probably changed outcome	Reversed dismissal as to ineffective assistance of trial counsel; petition makes a substantial showing and merits an evidentiary hearing
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not challenging IPI instructions for attempted murder & aggravated battery	IPI instructions were correct; victim need not be named and transferred intent applies; no plain error	Failure to raise instruction error on appeal was ineffective assistance	Affirmed dismissal as to appellate-counsel claim; no instruction error and thus no plain-error basis

People v. Robinson, 2020 IL 123849 (Supreme Court of Illinois) (clarifies that newly discovered evidence need not be dispositive; it must place trial evidence in a different light and undermine confidence in the verdict)
People v. Harris, 206 Ill. 2d 293 (Ill. 2002) (standards for freestanding actual-innocence claims in postconviction proceedings)
People v. Ortiz, 235 Ill. 2d 319 (Ill. 2009) (definition of newly discovered evidence and due diligence requirement)
People v. Pendleton, 223 Ill. 2d 458 (Ill. 2006) (at second stage, well-pleaded facts not positively rebutted by the record are taken as true)
People v. Coleman, 183 Ill. 2d 366 (Ill. 1998) (courts should not resolve credibility or make factual findings at second stage)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (two-prong standard for ineffective assistance: deficient performance and prejudice)
People v. Domagala, 2013 IL 113688 (Ill. 2013) (clarifies reasonable-probability prejudice standard under Strickland)
People v. Sanders, 2016 IL 118123 (Ill. 2016) (examples where newly discovered evidence was insufficient due to positive rebuttal by the record)
People v. Tate, 2012 IL 112214 (Ill. 2012) (overview of Post-Conviction Hearing Act stages)