The People v. Harrison

70 N.E.2d 596, 395 Ill. 463, 1946 Ill. LEXIS 468
Illinois Supreme Court·Decided November 20, 1946·No. No. 29707. Judgment affirmed.·Published·Cited by 39 cases

Opinions

Mr. Justice Smith

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a writ of error to review a judgment of the circuit court of Williamson county. Plaintiff in error, upon a trial by jury, was found guilty of the murder of Edith Vaughn. The jury fixed his punishment at fourteen years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary. He was sentenced accordingly.

On March 11, 1945, plaintiff in error was engaged in operating a tavern and dance hall in Colp, Illinois. The events leading,up to the fatal shooting originated in an argument in plaintiff in error’s tavern, between Jessie Copening and Edith Kirby, over the playing of a juke box. Shortly after this argument Jessie Copening and Edith Kirby met again in a tavern located across the street which was operated by LeRoy Smith. At that 'time the argument was renewed and resulted in a fight between the two girls. Someone separated them. LeRoy Smith, the operator of the tavern in which the fight occurred, ordered Jessie Copening out of the tavern. Shortly thereafter she reentered the Smith tavern. Edith Kirby left the Smith tavern and returned to the tavern operated by plaintiff in error where she had some conversation with him. She there procured a pistol and made some threats against the Copening girl. The pistol was taken from-her by plaintiff in error, who told her to forget it. Shortly- thereafter plaintiff in error entered the Smith tavern. Jessie Copening and several other people were in the tavern at that time. He was armed with a pistol from which he fired two or three shots in the direction of those congregated in the tavern, evidently intending to shoot Jessie Copening. All of the shots missed Jessie Copening but one struck Edith Vaughn, a bystander. The bullet entered the side of her head above the ear. It lodged between the inner and outer plates of the skull. She was taken to a hospital where the bullet was later removed, by Doctors Lewis and Gar-diner. After she had been in the hospital for some time, she apparently recovered from this injury.

Thereafter plaintiff in error was indicted by the grand jury of Williamson county for an assault with a deadly weapon, with intent to murder Edith" Vaughn, alleged to have been committed on March 11, 1945. He was thereafter tried on said indictment. The jury found him not guilty and judgment was entered on the verdict discharging the defendant. The trial on the assault to murder charge was held on November 9, 1945. Edith Vaughn died on November 10, 1945. Thereafter the indictment in this case was returned, charging plaintiff in error with the murder of Edith Vaughn by shooting on March 11, 1945. Upon the trial on this indictment, the jury found the defendant guilty of murder and fixed his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary, ás above noted. After overruling motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the court entered judgment, on the' verdict.

When the murder case was called for trial, plaintiff in error filed a petition for discharge, setting up his former acquittal of the crime of assault with intent to murder Edith Vaughn in bar of the prosecution for murder. This was denied by the trial court. Thereafter he sought to offer in evidence the record of his prior acquittal, which the court refused to admit.

The alleged .errors urged here for reversal of the judgment are: (1) that the corpus delicti was not proved; (2) that the instructions given on behalf of the People were inapplicable, misleading and inaccurate; and (3) that the court erred in excluding the defense of former jeopardy. We will first direct our attention to the contention of plaintiff in error that his acquittal of the offense of assault with intent to murder Edith Vaughn constituted former jeopardy and is a bar to this prosecution for murder. If the contention of plaintiff in error on this point be sustained, the other alleged errors are immaterial. This contention raises an interesting question and one which is rarely involved.

The defense of former acquittal or former'' conviction is a substantial defense which is as old as the law itself. It is elementary that the acquittal of a defendant on an indictment for an offense which includes lesser offenses, operates also as an acquittal, and as a bar to any subsequent prosecution, of all included lesser offenses of which he might have been convicted on the indictment charging the higher offense. But, that is not the question involved in this case. Here the offense of which the defendant was acquitted was a lesser offense which was included in the charge in the indictment for murder upon which he was convicted. The crime of murder, however, was not an offense of which he might have been convicted on the indictment charging an assault with intent to commit murder:

In support of his contention that his former acquittal of the crime of assault with intent to murder is a bar to the prosecution against him for murder, growing out of the same transaction, plaintiff in error relies upon People v. Dugas, 310 Ill. 291, and People v. Allen, 368 Ill. 368. In the Dugas case it was sought to invoke an acquittal of the crime of murder in aid of a motion for a new trial in a case where the defendant had been previously found guilty of assault to murder. The acquittal of the murder charge occurred while a motion for a new trial was pending in the assault to murder case. It was held that the acquittal of the crime of murder operated also as an acquittal of all included lesser offenses of which the defendant might have been convicted on the murder indictment, including the crime of assault to murder, growing out of the same transaction. The rule there applied was not only accurate, but elementary. In that case the situation was reversed from what it is in the present case. There the acquittal of the charge of murder which necessarily included the lesser offense of assault to murder, was invoked as a bar to the further prosecution of an indictment for such included lesser offense. Here it is sought to invoke the acquittal of a lesser offense before the offense of murder had been completed and while the victim was still alive, as a bar to a prosecution for murder. In the Dugas case the court observed that had the defendant been first convicted of assault to murder, such conviction would have been no bar to his subsequent prosecution for the crime of murder. This statément, instead of supporting the contention of plaintiff in error, is directly contrary to such contention.

The case of People v. Allen is also clearly distinguishable from this case. There the defendant was charged by separate indictments with manslaughter. One of the indictments charged the killing of one person and the other indictment the killing of a different person. It was conceded that both deaths grew out of the same transaction involving an automobile accident. On the first indictment the defendant was discharged under section 18 of division XIII of the Criminal Code. . (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1945, chap. 38, par. 748.) This, of course, was equivalent to an acquittal. He could not thereafter be prosecuted for the same offense. When he was brought to trial on the second indictment he invoked his discharge from prosecution under the first indictment, as a bar to his prosecution under the second.

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The People v. Harrison, 70 N.E.2d 596, 395 Ill. 463, 1946 Ill. LEXIS 468 (Ill. 1946).

70 N.E.2d 596 (The People v. Harrison) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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