The People v. Stilson

174 N.E. 45, 342 Ill. 158
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 18, 1930
DocketNo. 20373. Judgment affirmed.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 174 N.E. 45 (The People v. Stilson) 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. Stilson, 174 N.E. 45, 342 Ill. 158 (Ill. 1930).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Farmer

delivered the opinion of the court:

Dr. James Madison Stilson was indicted by the grand jury at the May term, 1930, of the circuit court of JoDaviess county. He pleaded not guilty, was tried by a jury at the June term, 1930, found guilty of murder and sentenced to the penitentiary for twenty years. He has sued out this writ of error for a review of the judgment.

The first two counts of the indictment charged Dr. Stilson, the defendant, with assault upon the body of Anna Lou Garner and unlawfully, feloniously and willfully thrusting and inserting a certain glass tube into her private parts and womb, she being then pregnant with child, and thereby unlawfully, feloniously and willfully attempting to procure and produce an abortion of Miss Garner which was not then and there necessary for the preservation of her life, and that the attempt to procure and produce the abortion caused her death on March 22, 1930. The second count was practically the same as the first. The third count charged defendant with assaulting Miss Garner and employing certain instruments, the description of which is unknown to the grand jurors, and thrusting and inserting said instruments into her private parts and thereby feloniously and unlawfully attempting to procure an abortion, she being then pregnant with child and the abortion being unnecessary for the preservation of her life, by reason of which defendant inflicted upon Miss Garner a mortal wound, of which she died March 22, 1930. The fourth count charges defendant with the use of a certain glass tube and other unknown instruments and devices for procuring an abortion upon Miss Garner. The fifth count charges the defendant with murder by making an assault in some way and manner and by some means and device upon Miss Garner, and by attempting to procure an aborption by forcing and thrusting unknown devices into her body and womb and thereby producing a mortal wound, from which she died March 22, 1930. The sixth count charges an assault by defendant with certain unknown instruments and devices and by some manner and means upon Miss Garner, and the willful and felonious striking and bruising, giving to Miss Garner a mortal wound, of which she died.

Some complaint is made that the trial was held very soon after the indictment was returned, but the record discloses no injury to the defendant by the early trial, and no motion was made for a continuance or postponement of the trial.

Defendant had been a practicing physician for thirty-five years and had practiced in four States and in thirteen different communities in the four States. He had been practicing in the village of Warren, in Jo Daviess county, for about four months prior to March 18, 1930. Charles Raab, a farm employee twenty-four years of age, who lived in Stockton, Illinois, and who evidently was responsible for Miss Garner’s condition, took her to defendant’s office in the village of Warren, arriving there about nine o’clock in the evening, March 18, 1930. Raab remained outside and Miss Garner went into defendant’s office. Defendant testified she said she feared she was pregnant and asked him to do something for her; that she said she had previously taken certain tablets obtained from another doctor but they had produced no results. He testified he examined Miss Garner but could find no evidence of pregnancy; that she had gonorrhea, and he told her she would probably miscarry anyway. He further stated she was in his office from twenty to forty minutes and offered him a fee of $50 if he would aid her. Arthur Humasen, a man residing in Freeport, testified on behalf of defendant that he was a patient of Dr. Stilson and was sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office when Miss Garner came out of his private office and that she was in tears; that he heard her ask the doctor if he could not do something for her; that he said he could not, and Miss Garner said she would give him $50 if he would, but he refused to take her money and told her that due to her condition he did not think she would carry the child until fall. In the early evening of the next day after Miss Garner’s visit to defendant’s office in Warren, Raab telephoned defendant, asking him if he would come to Miss Garner’s home in Stockton to see her as she was in bad shape. He told Raab he would be there in a half hour. He drove to Stockton, where Raab met him and showed him Miss Garner’s residence. Defendant’s further testimony was, in substance, that he was let into the .dining room of the Garner home, and very shortly Mrs. Green, who was a sister of Miss Garner, came into the room. Mrs. Green took him into the bed-room. He -found the temperature of the patient about 100 and that she had a slight cough and cold but had sent for him on account of pains in her abdomen. She was suffering great pain over both ovaries and the peritoneum. She was in bed with a night dress on and was wearing a menstrual pad. After examining her he made a solution of lysol and put his instruments in it, crossed her on the bed and put each foot on a chair and used a speculum to open the vagina. He found a slow discharge of mucous. He used cotton on a pair of forceps and swabbed up the blood, then inserted a curette and removed about three blood clots. He stated the curettement consisted of placing a curette in the uterus and scraping out what was in it. He placed no packing in the uterus at any time and did not remove any from the patient. He said he found no evidence of a foetus. He called the next day about noon to see the patient. She was not suffering as much as she had been the night before. They had no way of giving a douche, so he went down-town and got a glass douchepoint and some lysol for a vaginal douche. He said the patient got out of bed and on a slop jar and he gave her a douchepoint and she inserted it herself. She then got back into bed and the doctor went home. Shortly after reaching home some of the parties called him over the telephone and said they were taking the patient to the hospital. He heard no more of the girl or her case until he was arrested.

Mrs. Green, the sister of Miss Garner, testified she saw defendant use his instruments and remove from the patient’s private parts the packing in her body, the blood clots and everything. She testified she said while he was doing that if she had to suffer like her sister was she would rather have children, and that he replied, “Why have children when you can get out of it this easy?” She testified the doctor told her on the occasion of his second visit to Stockton to see her sister that the patient’s trouble was her lungs ; that she was probably going to have pneumonia. She said to him that she thought the best place for her sister was the hospital, ’ but he said her home would be better for her and to have a trained nurse. She was taken that day to St. Francis Hospital. Mrs. Green testified she went to Miss Garner’s home on the occasion of defendant’s visit the second day, but he was about ready to leave and she did not know what he did that day.

Mary Garner, the mother of Anna Lou Garner, testified she lived in Stockton; that her daughter became ill on March 19, 1930, and that evening Charlie Raab called Dr. Stilson; that when the doctor came, she, Charlie and Mrs. Green were present; that when the doctor came in he asked if Anna was suffering much and said he thought he would find a clot of blood and she would be easier after he removed the packing.

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174 N.E. 45, 342 Ill. 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-stilson-ill-1930.