People v. Walker

192 N.E.2d 819, 28 Ill. 2d 585, 1963 Ill. LEXIS 574
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 27, 1963
DocketNo. 37694
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 192 N.E.2d 819 (People v. Walker) 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
People v. Walker, 192 N.E.2d 819, 28 Ill. 2d 585, 1963 Ill. LEXIS 574 (Ill. 1963).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Schaefer

delivered the opinion of the court:

A jury in the circuit court of Coles County found the defendant, Clifford Edward Walker, guilty of perjury, and he was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of not less than three nor more than ten years. The most serious of the contentions that he advances upon this appeal, and the only one that we find it necessary to consider, centers about his claim that in the proceedings that led to his conviction his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination was violated.

The circumstances are unusual. The defendant had pleaded guilty to an indictment that charged him with the burglary of the Presbyterian Church in Mattoon, and a hearing upon his application for probation was held on May 26, 1961. At that hearing the defendant was sworn and testified that certain statements which he had given to the police were true. Included in those statements was the assertion that on February 19, 1961, he, together with Russell A. Tomer and Thomas M. Shatto, had burglarized St. John’s Lutheran Church, also in Mattoon.

On May 31, 1961, the defendant was called to testify before the Coles County grand jury, and under oath he again testified that he, together with Russell A. Tomer and Thomas M. Shatto, had burglarized St. John’s Lutheran Church on February 19, 1961.

Russell A. Tomer was subsequently indicted for the burglary of St. John’s Lutheran Church, and that case came on for trial on March 26, 1962. At that time the defendant Walker was in the penitentiary and a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum was issued to compel his attendance. When he was called as a witness he asserted his privilege against self-incrimination. On motion of the prosecutor the court entered an immunity order which provided that “this Order shall forever be a bar to any indictment, information or prosecution against said witness for any felony or misdemeanor shown in whole or in part by such testimony or evidence except for perjury committed in the giving of such testimony.”

After the immunity order was entered, the defendant testified that he was not with Shatto and Tomer on February 19, 1961, and that they did not enter St. John’s Lutheran Church at that time or at any other time. The prosecutor was then permitted to examine him as a hostile witness, and he was pressed as to whether the statements he made under oath in connection with his application for probation and before the grand jury were false. He admitted that they were, saying, “At that time I would have involved anyone in it.”

Shatto was called as a witness at Tomer’s trial. He, too, claimed his privilege against self-incrimination, was granted immunity and he also denied the burglary of St. John’s Lutheran Church. A directed verdict of not guilty was returned in favor of Tomer, and judgment was entered upon that verdict.

Thereafter the present proceeding was commenced against the defendant Walker. The first count of the indictment returned against him charged him with perjury at his probation hearing on May 26, 1961, asserting that he falsely stated that he, Shatto and Tomer had participated in the burglary of St. John’s Lutheran Church. The second count charged that he committed perjury before the grand jury on May 31, 1961, when he gave similar testimony. The third count charged that he committed perjury on March 26, 1962, at Tomer’s trial, when he stated that he and Tomer did not burglarize St. John’s Lutheran Church. The fourth count charged perjury by contradictory statements under oath on May 26, 1961, and on March 26, 1902, and the fifth count charged perjury by contradictory statements on May 31, 1961, and on March 26, 1962.

At the trial it was proved that each of the three statements charged in the indictment was made by the defendant under oath. The prosecution did not attempt, however, to show which of the statements was false, and offered no proof to show that St. John’s Lutheran Church had actually been burglarized. Tomer was called as a witness by the defendant and denied that he broke into the church at any time. All counts of the indictment were submitted to the jury and a general verdict of guilty was returned.

Before we reach the defendant’s claim that his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination was violated, it is appropriate that we consider the People’s suggestion that his privilege was waived by his voluntary testimony at the probation hearing and before the grand jury. It is true that the defendant testified voluntarily both at his probation hearing and before the grand jury, although it does not appear that he was advised of his privilege on either of these occasions. But the doctrine of waiver is limited to the particular proceeding in which the voluntary testimony was given. The view that prevails, apparently without dissent, is thus stated by Wigmore. “His voluntary testimony before a coroner’s inquest, or a grand jury, or other preliminary and separate proceeding, e.g. in bankruptcy, is therefore not a waiver for the main trial; nor is his testimony at a first trial a waiver for a later trial.” 8 Wigmore on Evidence, 3rd ed. sec. 2276; see cases collected, 36 A.L.R. 2d 1403.

In Samuel v. People, 164 Ill. 379, one who had initiated a prosecution by making an affidavit endorsed upon the back of an information, swearing to the truth of the charge, was held not to have waived his privilege when called to testify as a witness at the trial. The court stated, “The doctrine applies only to a case where the witness, while testifying upon the trial, states a fact and afterwards refuses to give the details, or discloses a part of a transaction, in which he was criminally concerned, without claiming his privilege, and then refuses to go forward and state the whole; it does not apply to a case, where some admission made long prior to the trial is sought to be brought forward and joined to the answers given on the trial.” 164 Ill. at 383, 384.

In People v. Rockola, 339 Ill. 474, it was held that a witness who testified before the grand jury could not be compelled to testify at the ensuing trial unless he was effectively granted immunity. The fact that a single civil action has been regarded as one continuous proceeding so that the filing of a sworn pleading, (Loraitis v. Kukulka, 1 Ill.2d 533) or the giving of a deposition, (Stalder v. Stone, 412 Ill. 488) constituted a waiver, does not, in our opinion, justify a departure from the established rule. Indeed, if the separate proceedings here involved were to be regarded as “one transaction”, as the People urge, prosecution of the defendant would apparently be barred under section 32 — 2 of the Criminal Code of 1961. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1961, chap. 38, par. 32 — 2.) We hold that the defendant’s privilege against self-incrimination was not waived.

In passing upon the defendant’s claim that his privilege against self-incrimination was violated, it must first be recognized that his contradictory statements under oath were material and that one or the other of them was false. This the defendant concedes, and he testified at the Tomer trial that his earlier statements were false.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cordeck Sales v. Construction Systems
Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008
Cordeck Sales, Inc. v. Construction Systems, Inc.
887 N.E.2d 474 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)
People v. Craig
778 N.E.2d 192 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2002)
City of Columbus v. Coopee
49 Ohio St. 3d 42 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1990)
People v. Bernstein
508 N.E.2d 277 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1987)
People v. Goodwin
499 N.E.2d 119 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1986)
Novak v. Rathnam
478 N.E.2d 1334 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1985)
People v. Ramirez
457 N.E.2d 31 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1983)
People v. Smith
429 N.E.2d 870 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1981)
People Ex Rel. Cruz v. Fitzgerald
363 N.E.2d 835 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1977)
State v. Paquette
369 A.2d 1096 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1977)
United States v. Leonard Patrick
542 F.2d 381 (Seventh Circuit, 1976)
Brown v. State
334 So. 2d 597 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1976)
Taylor v. Commonwealth
338 N.E.2d 823 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1975)
Victoria v. State
522 S.W.2d 919 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1975)
People v. Denson
322 N.E.2d 464 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1975)
People v. Stufflebeam
311 N.E.2d 601 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1974)
Davis v. State
501 S.W.2d 629 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1973)
People v. Denson
305 N.E.2d 263 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1973)
MATTER OF DeSAULNIER (NO. 2)
276 N.E.2d 278 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
192 N.E.2d 819, 28 Ill. 2d 585, 1963 Ill. LEXIS 574, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-walker-ill-1963.