People v. Brown

150 Ill. App. 365, 1909 Ill. App. LEXIS 597
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 19, 1909
DocketGen. No. 5,139
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 150 Ill. App. 365 (People v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Brown, 150 Ill. App. 365, 1909 Ill. App. LEXIS 597 (Ill. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Dibell

delivered the opinion of the court.

An indictment in four counts was returned in the Circuit Court of DeKalb county against Moses Brown for violations of the Act of 1907, which provides for the creation of anti-saloon territory and makes it unlawful to sell intoxicating liquors therein. During the trial the third and fourth counts were dismissed. He was convicted under the first and second counts and, after a motion for a new trial was denied, he was was fined $20 and the costs under each of said first and second counts and ordered committed to the county jail till said fine and costs were paid or he was discharged according to law. He has sued out this writ of error to review that judgment.

It is urged that the indictment is insufficient. Each of said counts charged that Brown, on dates named in October and November, 1908, “at and within the town of DeKalb in the County of DeKalb in the State of Illinois aforesaid unlawfully and wilfully intoxicating liquor did then and there sell, the said town of DeKalb then and there being anti-saloon territory, contrary to the form of the statute,” etc.

It is urged that the indictment should have alleged the presentation of a sufficient petition to have the town of DeKalb made anti-saloon territory, the holding of an election pursuant to law upon that subject, the canvass of the votes and the result, so that it could 'be determined from the indictment itself that the town of DeKalb had become anti-saloon territory. Section 17 of the Act provides as follows: “In all prosecutions under this Act, by indictment or otherwise, it shall not be necessary * * * * to set forth the facts showing that the required number of legal voters petitioned for the submission to the voters of said proposition nor that a majority of the legal voters, voting upon said proposition, voted ‘yes,’ but it shall be sufficient to state in that regard that the act complained of took place in an anti-saloon territory or district.” This objection is not well taken because the statute so provides.

It is also contended that the indictment is defective because it only said by way of recital, “the said town of DeKalb then and there being anti-saloon territory,” instead of averring directly “which said town of DeKalb then and there was anti-saloon territory.” We are of opinion that this objection is too technical for practical use. Where the language of the indictment is sufficient to inform the defendant with what crime he is charged and to enable the court to ascertain from an inspection thereof that it charges that the offense created by the statute has been committed, it is sufficient. Gallagher v. The People, 211 Ill. 158.

It is contended that the indictment is defective because it does not charge that Brown was not a druggist. Section 11 of the Act makes it unlawful to sell intoxicating liquor within anti-saloon territory. Section 12 provides the penalty for the sale of intoxicating liquor within the limits of anti-saloon territory. Section 18 provides that the Act shall not be construed to prevent the sale of liquor for medicinal, mechanical, sacramental or chemical purposes only, not to be drunk upon the premises, by druggists to whom permits or licenses have been duly granted, so long as such druggist shall keep a record of such sales containing the information in that section specified, and shall keep such record open to the inspection of the police and all public officers during business hours. It is contended that the provisions of this section should have been negatived in the indictment. In Sokel v. The People, 212 Ill. 238, 245-6, and in the cases there cited, it is held that where an act is made criminal, with exceptions embraced in the enacting clause creating the offense so as to be descriptive of it, the People must allege and prove that the defendant is not within the exceptions, because where the exception is descriptive of the offense it must be negatived in order to charge the defendant with the offense; but that if the exception is in a subsequent clause, or is in the same clause but not incorporated within the enacting clause by any words of reference, it need not be negatived, but is a mere matter of defense, and that all that need be negatived is such exception as is descriptive of the offense. In that case the offense was the charge of bigamy under section 28 of the criminal code, which section contained a provision creating exceptions to the act, and yet it was held that those exceptions were not descriptive of the crime and did not need to be averred and proved to sustain a conviction. In this case the offense is created by sections 11 and 12, while the exception is contained in section 18. We are of opinion that the People were not required to allege or prove that plaintiff in error was not within the exception. Section 1 of the Act defines certain words and phrases, and defines anti-saloon territory as all the territory within the limits of any town, etc., “in which, through the action of the legal voters therein, as provided by the Act, the sale of intoxicating liquor, except as herein provided, is prohibited.” It is contended that because of this definition in section 1, it was necessary to negative the exception in section 18. We think this position not well taken.

Plaintiff in error entered a motion for a bill of particulars, and that application was denied. It is urged that this was error, on the strength of what was said by this court in Gilmore v. The People, 87 Ill. App. 128. Since that decision the Supreme Court has discussed the matter of bills of particulars in criminal cases in Du Bois v. The People, 200 Ill. 157; Gallagher v. The People, 211 Ill. 158; and People v. Smith, 239 Ill. 91, and has therein established the rule that the trial court has a wide legal discretion in granting or refusing to grant a bill of particulars, and that the refusal to grant a bill of particulars will not be ground of reversal unless some harm resulted to defendant by the refusal. In this case the names of the witnesses were on the back of the indictment, and the record furnishes no reason to suppose that the plaintiff in error was not fully advised of the acts relied upon by the People for a conviction. We hold that no reversible error was committed in this case by the refusal to grant the application.

At the trial, after twelve jurors had been called into the box and sworn to answer questions, plaintiff in error challenged the array, and offered documentary and oral proof in support of the challenge. Section 1 of chapter 78 of the Bevised Statutes, relating to jurors, requires the county board of each county, at or before its September meeting in each year, or at any time thereafter when necessary, to make a list of not less than one-tenth of the legal voters of each town or precinct in the county, giving the place of residence of each name on the list, to be known as a jury list. Section 2 requires that at the meeting of the county board in September the board shall select from such list a number of persons equal to one hundred for each trial term of the Circuit Court provided by law to be held during the succeeding year, to serve as petit jurors, a proportionate number to be chosen from the residents of each town or precinct. Section 7 requires a list of the jurors so selected to be kept in the office of the county clerk, who shall write the name and residence of each person selected upon a separate ticket, and put the whole into a box for that purpose.

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Bluebook (online)
150 Ill. App. 365, 1909 Ill. App. LEXIS 597, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-brown-illappct-1909.