Death, Deletion, and Marital Privilege Won’t Protect Incriminating Text Messages in the Second District

In People v. Gliniewicz, the Illinois Appellate Court held that a defendant waived marital privilege by discussing text messages with police and consenting to a search of her phone, knowing the same messages existed on her husband’s device. The court emphasized that once protected marital communications are voluntarily disclosed, the privilege is waived regardless of whether the defendant understood the full impact of that disclosure.