Garrity v. People of State

• Decision Date: 30 September 1873
• Citation: Garrity v. People of State , 70 Ill. 83, 1873 WL 8551 (Ill. 1873)
• Parties: HUGH GARRITYv.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

70 Ill. 83

1873 WL 8551 (Ill.)

HUGH GARRITY

v.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1873.

WRIT OF ERROR to the Criminal Court of Cook county; the Hon. JOHN G. ROGERS, Judge, presiding.

Mr. JOHN LYLE KING, for the plaintiff in error.

Mr. JUSTICE SCOTT delivered the opinion of the Court:

Plaintiff in error and Charles Weed were indicted for an assault upon Benjamin G. Buchanan with intent to commit robbery. At a subsequent term of the court Garrity was separately tried, and the jury found him guilty, and fixed the time he should serve in the penitentiary at the period of six years. The court overruled the motion for a new trial, and pronounced judgment on the verdict, and that decision is assigned for error.

After a careful consideration, we are of opinion, all the members of the court concurring, that the evidence fails to sustain the verdict. There is no direct testimony, and it seems to us the record is singularly barren of evidence of facts and circumstances from which it could fairly be inferred the party accused intended to commit a crime of the character charged in the indictment. There is no doubt he was guilty of an assault, but not with an intent to commit the crime alleged. It was simply an assault characterized, perhaps, by a high degree of wantonness, for which the parties accused ought to have been punished. But the time, place and facts of the transaction, as given in evidence by the several witnesses, all repel the idea there was any intention whatever to commit a robbery on the person of Buchanan. He states it was a little before nine o'clock in the evening, while the street lights were still burning, the gas burning in the adjoining stores, and persons passing so near that some of...