Butler v. People

• Decision Date: 27 September 1888
• Citation: 18 N.E. 338,125 Ill. 641
• Parties: BUTLER et al. v. PEOPLE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

125 Ill. 641

18 N.E. 338

BUTLER et al.

v.PEOPLE.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September 27, 1888.

Error to circuit court, McDonough county; CHARLES T. SCOFIELD, Judge.

Niece & Son and James M. Blazer, for plaintiffs in error.

H. C. Agnew, State's Atty., and Tunnicliff & Tunnicliff, for the People.

CRAIG, C. J.

This was an indictment against William Butler, Franklin Butler, William Simpkins, and George Stuckey, in which they were charged with the murder of John Butler, on the 4th day of June, 1887, in McDonough county. On a trial of the defendants on the indictment, the jury found Simpkins and Stuckey guilty of a riot, and the other defendants guilty of manslaughter, and fixed the term of imprisonment at six years in the penitentiary. There is no substantial disagreement in regard to the facts which led to the death of John Butler. They are, so far as it is necessary to state them, substantially as follows: On the night of June 4, 1887, there was a horse show in Prairie City, a village in McDonough county. Quite a crowd gathered around the tent where the show was held. Among the number were the four defendants, the deceased, and Luther A. Conrey, marshal of the village. The defendants became somewhat noisy and boisterous; they shoved each other near the tent door, and attempted to blow out the light which was on the tent pole. The marshal signaled them to keep quiet, but, not being heeded, he stepped up to William Butler, and attempted to arrest him, when William either struck or pushed the marshal, and Franklin Butler came up behind the marshal and struck him two blows on the head with his fist, which knocked him down, or at least knocked him on his hands and knees. William Butler then laid hold of the marshal, and the by-standers came up to stop the fight, and while they were parting the men, the marshal discharged his revolver, and John Butler, a brother of the defendants, who was standing near by, was killed. The deceased was in no manner connected with the difficulty. He was a mere bystander, and, so far as appears, his conduct had been good during the evening. Upon the evidence, the court, among others, gave the following instructions for the people: (18) ‘If the jury believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, or any one of them, willfully disturbed the peace and quiet of any neighborhood in the village of Prairie City by loud or unusual noises, or by tumultuous or offensive carriage, and that they did so for the purpose or with the expectation that the witness Conrey would attempt to arrest them therefor, and that said Conrey was then and there an acting village constable or marshal in said Prairie City, and that such defendant or defendants then knew that fact, and that said Conrey thereupon undertook to arrest them or any one of them who may have created such disturbance, if any of them did, and they resisted such arrest, and assaulted and beat said Conrey, and were actually, or, as it would appear to a reasonable and prudent man under the same circumstances, about to inflict on him great bodily harm, and said Conrey, in order to protect himself from receiving such harm, and in his necessary or apparently necessary self-defense, fired his pistol, and that the ball from said pistol by accident hit and killed the deceased, John Butler, then the defendants, or such of them, if any, as aided or assisted or encouraged such assault and beating, if any there was, would be guilty of the killing of said John Butler.’ The court refused the following instruction, asked by the defendants: (20) ‘The court instructs the jury that if you believe from the evidence in the case that John Butler was killed by a shot fired from a revolver by one Luther Conrey, then you must find the defendants not guilty, unless you further believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the said defendants, or some one of them, acted with said Conrey, or in concert with him, to do an unlawful act, and that the death of said John Butler happened and was...