The People v. Padley

1 N.E.2d 209, 363 Ill. 50
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1936
DocketNo. 23375. Reversed and remanded.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1 N.E.2d 209 (The People v. Padley) 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
The People v. Padley, 1 N.E.2d 209, 363 Ill. 50 (Ill. 1936).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Farthing

delivered the opinion of the court:

A jury in the circuit court of Ford county convicted Robert Padley of the crime of rape in manner and form as charged in the indictment, and fixed his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary for the term of one year. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were overruled, and judgment was rendered upon the verdict. He has sued out this writ of error.

All five counts of the indictment were under section 237 of the Criminal Code. (38 S. H. A. 490; Ill. State Bar Stat. 1935, chap. 38, par. 505, p. 1224.) Two counts charged that the sexual act was committed on August 31, 1933, with force and without the consent of Esther Mae Johnson, and the other three charged defendant with the statutory offense, with the age of the prosecutrix alleged at thirteen years.

The defendant contends that his challenge to the array should have been sustained. The jury list chosen by the county board of supervisors in September, 1934, was illegal because it did not contain ten per cent of the voters of Ford county. Accordingly, at a meeting of the county board on March 12, 1935, a new list was made up and adopted by resolution.. The panel from which the jury was chosen to try defendant was drawn from this new list. The defendant says that" the present jury list is also illegal because the record of the meetings of the board of supervisors does not show that the jury list was selected at the regular September meeting of that board, at an adjourned session thereof, or at a special meeting. He introduced in evidence the record kept by the clerk of the board of supervisors. As originally recorded the minutes did not show that the motion to adjourn from September 11 to September 12, 1934, had carried. The clerk testified that shortly before the defendant’s trial, she wrote in the word “carried” in ink. Defendant insists she had no power or authority to make this amendment. The challenge to the array was properly overruled. Section 3 of the Jurors act provides that if, for any reason, the list or selection provided for in the first two sections of the act, shall not be made at the meeting of the board held at the time specified, such list or selection shall be made at any meeting to be held as soon thereafter as may be. This being the law, the jury list was properly made up at the meeting on March 12, whether it was an adjourned session of the September meeting or not. Defendant’s contention must therefore fail regardless of the power of the clerk to make the questioned amendment. But for another reason the objection that the clerk of the board had no power to make the amendment need not be considered. It readily appears from other parts of the minutes that the board adjourned from September to December and from December to March 12 and so it becomes immaterial whether the record showed that the motion to adjourn on September 11 carried.

The defendant correctly contends that the court erred in permitting Mrs. Siebers and Mrs. Boyd to testify that they had heard Mrs. Lambert tell Mr. Richards in the hall about 10:00 o’clock the day before that she did not remember the defendant being at her farm, and that she did not remember any dates. In Aneals v. People, 134 Ill. 401, at page 414, we said: “Before witnesses can be called to show that statements have been made out of court inconsistent with those testified to at the trial, it is necessary, as before said, to lay the proper foundation, by calling his attention to the time, place and person involved in the supposed contradiction. Then, if he denies having made the declaration or done the act imputed, the contradictory evidence becomes proper.” Mrs. Lambert was not asked if she had made the statements in question to Mr. Richards, nor was the time that they were supposed to have been made called to her attention. The impeaching testimony was clearly incompetent and should have been excluded.

The People do not contend that there was any evidence to show that rape was committed with force and without consent. The trial court should have directed a verdict of not guilty on the two counts which charged that it was. The court also erred in refusing to give the form of verdict requested by defendant, which would have required the jury to specify upon which counts, if any, they found defendant guilty.

Defendant is not in position to complain of the instructions to the jury. The court gave the parties ten days in which to file suggestions and objections to the court’s charge or instructions. Defendant filed suggestions and objections within the time allowed, but after the jury had returned its verdict. Under section 67 of the Civil Practice act as it was at the time of this trial in April, 1935, all suggestions and objections to instructions had to be made before the case went to the jury or they would be waived. The court had no power to suspend the effect of section 67, and so we do not consider the points made with reference to the instructions.

The defendant contends that the court erred in refusing to permit Grant Tinberg and Catherine Thomas to testify shortly before he closed his evidence, and in sustaining objections to his offer to prove by them that whilé the prosecuting witness was testifying her grandmother sat behind the State’s attorney and signaled by a nod or shake of her head what answers the witness should give. On the re-direct examination of the prosecutrix defendant objected to this conduct by the grandmother. The court stated that he had not observed the grandmother give signals, and admonished both that upon a repetition of such conduct, he would have the grandmother removed from the courtroom. Esther Mae Johnson said that she was not looking at her grandmother, but was looking at the State’s attorney. The court did not err in sustaining the objection to the offer of proof, because to have permitted these witnesses to testify would have injected an immaterial issue into the case. Defendant’s counsel should have moved for leave to withdraw a juror and for a continuance at the time he objected to the grandmother’s conduct. The court should then have heard the witnesses out of the presence of the jury and should have determined whether the grandmother was offending against the dignity of the court, and whether her conduct had been prejudicial. It was too late to again raise this question at the close of the defendant’s case.

Defendant complains of the action of the court in admitting in evidence over his objection the calendar marked by Mrs. Boyd. Without objection Mrs. Boyd had testified to all the circumstances surrounding the making of the memorandum it contained. She did not use the calendar to refresh her memory, and the exhibit was inadmissible. (People v. Greenspawn, 346 Ill. 484, 493.) The defendant, however, waived the point b)' not objecting to the testimony of Mrs. Boyd concerning the contents of the memorandum. In Cook v. People, 177 Ill. 146, 155, defendant contended that the court erred in admitting an entry on a hotel register. The hotel clerk and the proprietor had testified that deceased wrote an assumed name on the register and pointed out the name when she paid her bill. We held the fact was already proved without objection, and that it was not error to admit the entry in evidence. If the calendar were excluded, the testimony of Mrs. Boyd as to its contents would still be in evidence, and so defendant can not now be heard to complain. People v. Gruber, 362 Ill. 278; People v. Sobzcak, 286 id. 157; People v. Cassidy, 283 id. 398.

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Bluebook (online)
1 N.E.2d 209, 363 Ill. 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-padley-ill-1936.