People ex rel. Cain v. Hitchcock

2 Ill. Cir. Ct. 277
CourtIllinois Circuit Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1878
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Ill. Cir. Ct. 277 (People ex rel. Cain v. Hitchcock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Cain v. Hitchcock, 2 Ill. Cir. Ct. 277 (Ill. Super. Ct. 1878).

Opinion

McCulloch, J.:—

The petitioner was convicted before a police magistrate of the city of Peoria on a charge of vagrancy, and sentenced to the county jail for a period of sixty days. He now petitions to be discharged from imprisonment on the ground that the statute under which he was convicted is unconstitutional, in that it denies him a trial by jury. The record of his conviction does not show, nor is it contended, that he even demanded a jury, nor that a jury was in fact denied him. He rests his case wholly upon the unconstitutionality of the act of the legislature of 1877, defining and punishing the offense of vagrancy. Had he demanded a jury trial, and had the same been denied him, a different question might have arisen. It is now contended that, by the terms of the statute, he is denied that right, and, therefore, it would have availed him nothing to have demanded a jury. The statute in question is entitled “An act to amend an act entitled an-act to revise the law in relation to criminal jurisprudence, approved March 27, 1874.” The act so entitled is chapter 38 of the revised statutes of 1874, better known as the Criminal Code. The act of 1877 provides in its first section that sections 27(hand 271 of the act of 1874, “be and the same are hereby amended to read as follows, ’ ’ etc. The two sections so amended relate to the subject of vagrancy, and the amendments are germane thereto. Section 270 provided that vagabonds, idle and dissolute persons, who go about begging, and others mentioned, might be confined in the county jail, or in the workhouse, or in the house of correction, not exceeding six months. See. 271 provided that when a person should be convicted before a justice of the peace, or police magistrate, of any offense mentioned in the preceding section, he might, instead of the punishment therein mentioned, be fined not exceeding $20, with or without condition that if the same, with the costs of the proceeding, was not paid within the time specified, he should be committed to the county jail, or to the workhouse or to the house of correction, as provided in the preceding section, which conditional sentence should be carried into execution, as in other cases of commitment. Neither one of these sections provided for a trial by jury. But we are at liberty to look to other portions of the same chapter for such provision. Sec. 1, div. IX, of the Criminal code (numbered 381 in the revision of 1874), gives justices of the peace jurisdiction in cases arising under said sections 270 and 271. Sec. 4, div. IX,' provides that the person accused may have the cause tried by a jury upon the same conditions (except as to payment of jury fee), and the jury shall be summoned and impanelled in the same manner as in civil eases, before justices of the peace. See. 44, ch. 79, R. S. 1874, provides that in all cases of trial before a justice of the peace, either party may have the cause tried by a jury if he shall so demand before the trial is entered upon. The number of jurors shall be six, or a greater number, not exceeding twelve as either party may desire. Sec. 5, div. IX, Criminal Code, provides that if the jury find the accused guilty, they shall assess the fine, or fix the punishment as aforesaid. Sec. 6 provides that upon, the jury returning their verdict the justice shall record the same in his docket, or record book, and proceed to render judgment thereon accordingly, with costs. Sec. 7 provides that upon the rendition of judgment, imposing a fine, the justice shall, except as otherwise provided, issue execution against the goods and chattels of the defendant for the fine and costs, which may be levied upon any personal property of the defendant not exempt from execution. Sec. 8 provides that if the execution is returned unsatisfied the justice shall issue a capias against the body of the defendant, who shall be committed to the county jail for forty-eight hours, and for twenty-four hours, additional for every $5 fine over and above $10. The provisions of these last two sections are so modified by the foregoing sections in relation to vagrants, that the justice may make it a part of his judgment that if the fine be not paid within a time specified, the defendant shall be committed to the county jail, work house or house of correction for a period not exceeding six months.

These references to the statute show very clearly that under sections 270 and 271, R. S. 1874, a party charged with vagrancy was not denied the right of trial by jury. If, now, we put in the place of these two sections, the amended sections of 1877, and read the whole chapter as one statute, as we are bound to do, there would seem to be no good reason for saying that a party charged with vagrancy is thereby denied the right of trial by jury, unless by the terms of the amendment that right is expressly taken away, or unless such trial would be incompatible with its provisions. The right of trial by jury is one which the legislature cannot take away. It will not be presumed that it intended to do so unless that intention is made clearly to appear. When a statute is amended, the change must be found in the words of the amendment, or it must follow as a necessary inplieation therefrom. It is provided in the constitution that no law shall be revised, or amended, by reference to its title only but “the law revised, or the section amended shall be inserted at length in the new act. ’ ’ The statute is then read as if the amended sections constituted a part of the original act, and the whole must be construed together, in order to arrive at the true meaning of the amendment. Applying these principles to the statute in question, we find in the context certain provisions relating to jury trials in all cases within the jurisdiction of justices of the peace and police magistrates, which a person charged with vagrancy may invoke, unless there be something in the amendments themselves which in terms or by necessary implication deny the right of trial by jury..

It is said, however, that because the amended sections provide only, for a trial by the justice or police magistrate, that there is no place in the statute for a jury trial. Were we to confine ourselves strictly to the amended sections, this might be true. But the same course of reasoning would destroy the efficiency of many of the provisions of the criminal code. The several provisions defining crimes and fixing the punishment, do not in terms- provide for trials by jury. There is no law providing specifically that any one charged with murder, arson, burglary, larceny, robbery, and the like, shall be tried by jury. It is only when we come to section 8, div. XIII, that we find it provided “that all trials for criminal offenses shall be conducted according to the course of common law, except when this act points out a different mode.” Now the legislature of 1877, amended sec. 36, relating to burglary, sec. 168, relating to larceny, sec. 186, relating to malicious mischief, and sec. 213, relating to taking illegal fees. It would be just as logical to say that each one of these acts is unconstitutional, because it does not provide for trial by jury, as to pronounce the law in question void for that, reason.

Sec.

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2 Ill. Cir. Ct. 277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-cain-v-hitchcock-illcirct-1878.