In August 1995, a new law took effect in Illinois, one that required convicted felons to serve more of the time they were actually sentenced to.

About a year and a half later, a 20-month-old Elgin girl was murdered and sexually assaulted by her mother’s then-boyfriend.

The boyfriend, Cayce Williams, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and predatory criminal sexual assault nine years later.

But by then, the truth-in-sentencing law that had been in effect at the time of Quortney Kley’s murder had been declared unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court.

The decision led to the immediate release of 18 inmates and was expected to reduce how long more than 2,500 then-prisoners actually spent in the state’s correctional system, the Chicago Tribune reported when the law was struck down in January 1999.

It also affected cases like Williams’ that were still working their way through the judicial system.

Williams was released last week after serving only half of his 48-year sentence. He’s moved to Crystal Lake to live with family, but the state’s sex offender registry shows he’s since moved to Chicago.

What led to the court’s decision was the new truth-in-sentencing rules were part of a larger bill that addressed at least five legislative topics, both civil and criminal, Chief Justice Charles Freeman wrote in the court’s opinion, which was issued without dissent.

“As we have stated in the past, the subject of a bill may be as broad as the legislature chooses, provided that the bill’s provisions have a ‘natural and logical connection,’” Freeman wrote in the opinion.

The law began its journey through the legislative process in March 1995 as a bill meant to increase a defendant’s burden of proof in asserting the insanity defense, Freeman noted. The Senate passed the bill in its entirety the following month.

But once in the House of Representatives, the bill “underwent a substantial metamorphosis,” according to the court’s opinion. One amendment deleted the entire text of the bill and it was replaced with “numerous matters in addition to the subject of the insanity defense.”

Among the new provisions were the drug forfeiture procedures, truth-in-sentencing legislation, and the procedures for hospital liens. The amended bill was subsequently re-approved by the Senate and signed into law by Gov. Jim Edgar.

The single subject clause of the Constitution serves two purposes, Freeman wrote.

It prevents legislation that would otherwise not garner enough votes from being enacted, and it also ensures the bills move through a legislative process that is “orderly and informed” and where each legislator can better understand and more intelligently debate the bill’s merits, he said.

The Illinois General Assembly has a history of mucking with rules and process designed to make the legislative process transparent and fair, rushing through legislation and full budgets that most members have not had a chance to read.

Process matters. Doing things the right way matters.

It can mean the difference between a man serving 41 years of a 48-year sentence for the murder and sexual assault of a toddler or serving 24.