Graham v. People

47 L.R.A. 731, 55 N.E. 179, 181 Ill. 477, 1899 Ill. LEXIS 3075
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 19, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 47 L.R.A. 731 (Graham v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graham v. People, 47 L.R.A. 731, 55 N.E. 179, 181 Ill. 477, 1899 Ill. LEXIS 3075 (Ill. 1899).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the court:

This prosecution is based upon section 98 of the Criminal Code, which reads as follows: “Every person who shall obtain, or attempt to obtain, from any other person or persons, an;?- money or property, by means or by use of any false or bogus checks, or by any other means, instrument or device, commonly called the confidence game, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than one year nor more than ten years.”

The indictment was framed under section 99 of the Criminal Code which is as follows: “In every indictment under the preceding section, it shall be deemed and held a sufficient description of the offense, to charge that the accused did, on, etc., unlawfully and feloniously obtain, or attempt to obtain, (as the case may be), from A B, (here insert the name of the person defrauded or attempted to be defrauded), his money (or property, in case it be not money), by means and by use of the confidence game.”

The motions, made by the plaintiff in error to quash the indictment and in arrest of judgment, were based upon two grounds. In the first place, it is alleged, that the indictment is insufficient as not expressly stating all the acts constituting the offense, with which the prisoner is charged, and-as thereby failing to inform the prisoner of the nature and cause of the accusation against him. We are of the opinion, however, that the indictment is not invalid for the reason thus urged against it. This court has held in a number of cases that, where an indictment charges .that money was obtained by means and by use of the confidence game, such indictment sufficiently describes the offense, defined in section 98 of the Criminal Code, because of the express provisions of section 99 above quoted, and also because of the general provision contained in section 6 of division 11 of the Criminal Code. Said section 6 provides, that “every indictment or accusation of the grand jury shall be deemed sufficiently technical and correct, which states the offense in the terms and language of the statutes creating the offense, or so plainly that the nature of the offense may be easily understood by the jury.” Said section 6 then gives a form for the commencement of an indictment. Section 98 of division 1, and section 6 of division 11, of the Criminal Code justify the framing of "the indictment in the present case in the language in which it is above set forth. (Morton v. People, 47 Ill. 468; Maxwell v. People, 158 id. 248; Loehr v. People, 132 id. 504; Seacord v. People, 121 id. 623; West v. People, 137 id. 189; Coffin v. United States, 156 U. S. 432).

The second ground, upon which the indictment is claimed to be invalid is, that said section 99 is unconstitutional. The constitutionality of this act was considered in Morton v. People, 47 Ill. 468, and it was there held that the act, defining, creating and punishing the confidence game, was not in violation of the constitution of the State. Its constitutionality has been recognized by this court in a number of cases decided, since the case of Morton v. People was decided. We see no reason for changing the conclusion reached in Morton v. People, supra, and decline to reconsider the grounds, upon which the conclusion arrived at in that case is based.

We are, therefore, of the opinion that the court below committed no error in refusing to quash the indictment, because of the insufficiency of its allegations, or because of the alleged unconstitutionality of the statute under which it was framed.

At the close of the evidence for the State, and again at the close of all the evidence, the plaintiff in error requested the court to give to the jury a written instruction to find defendant not guilty. The court refused to give the instruction so asked, and exception was duly taken.

The instruction No. 28, asked by the plaintiff in error, the defendant below, was refused-as asked, but was modified and given as modified. To the giving of the instruction, as modified, exception was duly taken. Instruction No. 23 as asked was as follows:

“The court instructs the jury, that an attempt to obtain money by means of the confidence game consists of the following three elements: First, an intention to obtain money by means of the confidence game; second, the doing of some act toward the obtaining of money by means of the confidence game; third, the failure so to obtain the money. Unless said three elements have been each and all established by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, there has been a failure to prove the commission of the crime charged in the indictment.”

Instruction 23, as modified and given, is as follows:

“The court instructs the jury that an attempt to obtain money by means of the confidence game consists of the following three elements: First, an intention to obtain money by means of the confidence game; second, the doing of some act toward the obtaining of money by means of the confidence game; third, the failure to so obtain the money in Perry county. Unless the said three elements have been each and all established by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, there has been a failure to prove the commission of the crime charged- in the indictment.”

The modification made by the court was the insertion of the words, “in Perry county,” after the word “money” in the third of the designated elements, constituting an attempt to obtain money by means of the confidence game.

The instruction, as asked by the plaintiff in error, correctly defined an attempt to obtain money by means of the confidence game.

Evidently, section 98 provides for the commission of two separate crimes. One is the crime of obtaining money by means of the confidence game, and the other is the crime of an attempt to obtain money by means of the confidence game. The words are: “every p'erson, who shall obtain or attempt to obtain,” etc. The use of the word “or” indicates that two offenses are described. (United States v. Quincy, 6 Pet. 464).

All the authorities, to which we have been referred, describe an attempt to commit a crime as consisting of three elements, to-wit: The intent to commit the crime; performance of some act towards the commission of the crime; and the failure to consummate its commission.

In American and English Encyclopedia of Law, (2d ed. vol. 3, p. 250), an attempt to commit a crime is defined to be “an act done in part execution of a criminal design, amounting to more than mere preparation, but falling short of actual consummation, and possessing, except for failure to consummate, all the elements of the substantive crime.” It is also stated in the same text book, that the common elements of every attempt to commit a crime are “a criminal intent coupled with an overt act apparently adapted to effect that intent.” (3 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law,—2d ed.—p. 254). Bishop in his New Criminal Law, (vol. 1, sec. 435,) says: “Whenever a man, intending" to commit a particular crime, does an act toward it, but is interrupted, or some accident intervenes, so that he fails to accomplish what he meant, he is still punishable. This is called a criminal attempt.” In Encyclopedia of Pleading and Practice (vol. 3, p.

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Bluebook (online)
47 L.R.A. 731, 55 N.E. 179, 181 Ill. 477, 1899 Ill. LEXIS 3075, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graham-v-people-ill-1899.