The People v. Stokes.

165 N.E. 611, 334 Ill. 200
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 20, 1929
DocketNo. 18424. Judgment affirmed.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 165 N.E. 611 (The People v. Stokes.) 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. Stokes., 165 N.E. 611, 334 Ill. 200 (Ill. 1929).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Duncan

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff in error, Florence Stokes, herein called the defendant, was indicted by the grand jury of Cook county for the murder of James Glennon. She was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury in the criminal court of that county, and by their verdict the jury fixed her imprisonment in the penitentiary for one year. After her motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment were overruled the court entered judgment and sentenced her to the penitentiary “for a term of years not to exceed the maximum term fixed by statute for the crime whereof she stands convicted,” and that she pay the costs of prosecution. She prosecutes this writ of error.

For the People four witnesses testified in substance as follows:

Winifred E. Glennon, sister of the deceased: The deceased was twenty-two years old, single, and by occupation a street car conductor. She has known the defendant three years. The defendant called her brother on the telephone about three o’clock in the afternoon of February 22, 1927. Witness last saw him at eight o’clock P. M. on that day. When she next saw him he was dead. He never had a revolver to her knowledge. Pie knew the defendant about two years. She did not know how often he was with the defendant.

Morgan L. Trainor, coroner’s physician: Pie made a post-mortem examination of James S. Glennon. Glennon had two bullet wounds in his head, on account of which, in witness’ judgment, he died. One of the bullets took a downward course through the brain, through the temple bone and out below the right ear. The other bullet passed forward and downward, shattering the jaw-bone on its way out. Witness could not tell which bullet was fired first or the kind of weapon used or the caliber of the bullet.

Ralph J. McGregor, residing in an apartment building at 6450 Green street: On the night of February 22, 1927, he was sitting in the living room of the apartment and heard two shots fired in the areaway at the side of the house. He took a flash-light, looked down the stairway and saw a body lying there. He called the police. Pie did not see anything or hear anything except the two shots fired and did not go down-stairs. The man’s heels were on a lower step and his head was “in the direction of the front of the house.”

Julia Mary O’Donoghue, a resident of the apartment building at 6450 Green street: The defendant rented a room from witness some time in September and boarded and roomed with her. She saw the defendant about seven o’clock on February 22, 1927. She had not been home during that day. She did not know where the defendant had been, but she told witness that she was securing a job in Indiana Harbor. She sat in the kitchen and ate her supper, and witness saw her talking on the ’phone in the front room but did not see her after that. The defendant went out of the apartment and has not come back since that time. She had paid her room rent for that week. She was a working girl. Since the time aforesaid she had been in the custody of the police.

Before the prosecution made its opening statement to the jury the attorney for the defendant gave notice that he would object to the introduction of the statement or confession that had been previously made by the defendant to the officers who then had her under arrest and to all evidence concerning such statement or confession, on the ground that the statement was not made voluntarily. The assistant State’s attorney in charge of the prosecution agreed with the suggestion of the defendant’s attorney that it would be better to have a hearing on the admissibility of the confession before proceeding with the trial, and such hearing was accordingly had in the absence of the jury. The first witness called on the hearing was the stenographer who wrote the defendant’s statement or confession. He stated that when the confession was made there were present police captain Gregory Moran, officer Ed Webber and constable Charles E. Cole, of East Chicago, Indiana. Moran asked the questions and witness wrote the questions and the answers of the defendant. Witness stated that the defendant answered the questions freely and voluntarily and „ that no offer or inducement was made to her or any pressure brought to bear on her to get her to answer the questions and that she signed the statement when it was written. He stated on cross-examination that she had been in the captain’s office fifteen minutes before he was called in and that he did not know what had taken place there during his absence. The other witness, Charles E. Cole, the Indiana constable who arrested the defendant and brought her to Chicago, testified that when he first took her in custody she refused to talk; that she did not want to be taken to the police because she was afraid she would be abused, and that he told her the police would not hurt her. He further testified : “I told the young lady that if she would tell the truth the Chicago police would help her out, and that I was a friend of hers and would bring her in to them and she should tell the story and tell the truth, and that they would do all they could to help her out if they thought that she was giving them the evidence, and to answer any questions whatever they put to her.” In response to a question as to whether anything was said to the defendant while she was in the captain’s office before the stenographer came, witness said, “I think that Lieutenant Webber said that it would be best for her to make a statement and tell the truth.” No other evidence was offered on such preliminary examination. The court ruled that the statement made by the defendant, which is, in fact, a confession, was admissible.

When the confession was offered on the trial it was admitted over the defendant’s objection, and police sergeant Richard Piper then took the witness stand and over the objection of the defendant was permitted to testify that about n P. M. on February 22, 1927, their station was called and they proceeded to 6450 Green street. Other police officers arrived at the same time they did. Sergeant McFadden found the corpse. They found the body of a man lying „ on his face in the passageway, pretty well to the rear of the building. He was dead. Some papers in his pocket bore the name James Glennon, of 6715 Green street, and McFadden left for that number. Officer Beilfuss, who accompanied the witness, handed him two .32 caliber cartridges. The following evening, about twelve o’clock, the defendant was brought to the station in the company of a police matron, and witness talked to and questioned her. Over objection he was then allowed to testify that some papers were handed him and he looked at them and questioned her along those lines and about the death of Glennon.

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Bluebook (online)
165 N.E. 611, 334 Ill. 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-stokes-ill-1929.