Lynn v. People

• Decision Date: 22 December 1897
• Parties: LYNN v. PEOPLE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

170 Ill. 527

48 N.E. 964

LYNN

v.PEOPLE.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 22, 1897.

Error to circuit court, Massac county.

Phillip Lynn was convicted of murder, and be brings error. Reversed.

James C. Courtney (Benjamin O. Jones and Robert Nuckolls, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

E. C. Akin, Atty. Gen. (D. C. Hagle, C. A. Hill, D. W. Helm, and Saw. yer & Evans, of counsel), for the People.

CRAIG, J.

At the November term, 1896, of the circuit court of Massac county, plaintiff in error was convicted of the crime of murder, and sentenced to the penitentiary for 16 years. From this conviction he has sued out a writ of error. It appears from the record that plaintiff in error was marshal of the village of Brooklyn, in Massac county. On the 2d day of May, the day the shooting took place, plaintiff in error had borrowed a gun, and had been shooting unmuzzled dogs, by order of the mayor. Milas Bradshaw, known among his companions as ‘Lightning Bug,’ was a negro, unmarried, but lived with a woman called Jennie Williams. In the afternoon of said second day of May, Bradshaw and four others, colored persons, two or three being women, were engaged in playing cards in the room of one Ora Shaw, which was back of a restaurant. An alley led from the street, on the east side of the restaurant, to the rear. A saloon adjoined the restaurant on the west, and in the rear of the two buildings was a yard in which the shooting took place. About 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when the plaintiff in error was in the vicinity of the saloon, a disturbance occurred between Bradshaw and his mistress, Jennie Williams; and ‘a woman came screaming in the alley,’ as Solomon Grace, one of the people's witnesses, swears, ‘and told him [defendant] that Lightning Bug was whipping his wife, and Lynn [defendant] went back there.’ This testimony is undisputed. It further appears that, when the plaintiff in error reached the rear of the buildings, Bradshaw and the other negroes were in the yard. Ora Shaw, another of the people's witnesses, swears ‘that Jennie and Bug were in a kind of dispute, and Mr. Lynn [the marshal] walks up and demands peace. Says: ‘Bug, that it a good woman. You ought not to beat her in that way, and be all the time fussing and fighting and whipping her. If you don't quit, I will run you in.’ Says: ‘If you do it any more, I will run you in.’' The woman Jennie Williams was there. Her eyes were blackened from a blow, but it is denied that Bradshaw did it that day. It appears that Bradshaw became angry, got up, and commenced cursing the marshal, and started into the saloon, saying, as Solomon Grace swears, ‘No G-d d-n white son of a b-h could do anything with him; he would go home and get his gun;’ and he passed out of the front door of the saloon. In a few minutes the negro Bradshaw returned to the back yard, where the marshal was, and again commenced swearing at him. Solomon Grace says Bradshaw was standing in front of Ora Shaw's door, about 5 or 6 feet from the building, when he got there. Lynn was standing in the middle of the yard, about 30 feet from Bradshaw. Had his gun up to his shoulder, and was kind of backing and going sideways, and told him not to make a step towards him or he would kill him. ‘He had the gun up to his shoulder when I first saw him, and then brought it down in his hand; then raised it up again, and then Lightning Bug said: ‘You damn white son of a b-h, you are afraid to shoot.’ Lynn then brought up the gun, and shot him.' The defendant's testimony as to what occurred at this time was as follows: ‘The next I saw of him was, he turned the corner of the alley on me there; the alley I had gone up. I commenced backing back around this way; and he come up the little walk, and against I got back as far as midway of the house he was midways, too; and commenced from there coming on to me, straight towards me; and I kept backing and begging him not to come on to me, telling him to stay off, I did not want to hurt him. He comes very slow, like he wanted to slip on me. I raised and lowered my gun three times to take aim. The last time I took aim, and he got out, and was standing between them beer kegs. I told him-I says. ‘Bug, I don't want to kill you, but if you come any closer to me I will have to do it.’ He just took his left hand, and pulled his bosom open. He had on a jumper. They carry ties in them. He jerked his jumper open. He says, ‘You G-d d-n white-livered son of a bitch, I will make you do it;’ and he made another step right at me, and I shot him. I certainly was afraid he would hurt me. I knew if he got much closer to me he would be able to make a leap for my gun. I did not know what he went off for,-whether to get a gun or a cannon or what.' His brother, Boyd Lynn, testifies that: ‘I heard Phil halloo, ‘Stand back! Don't come on me!’ and then I went out there. He was going onto Phil. Phil was back against the fence. This Jennie was grabbing at the gun, and Lightning Bug was going onto him. There was about eight feet between them. I stepped past, and touched Jennie on the shoulder. I says, ‘Here, Jennie, stop this; get away, he will not hurt him;’ and she turned around to talk to Lightning Bug. I says, ‘He will not shoot him, if he stays off of him.’ He told her he did not want to hurt him. He says, ‘If he will stay off of me, I will not hurt him.’ Phil stepped out to this path. The weeds were high,-almost waist high. There is a path that leads across the yard. He backed into that, and was making for this door, and Lightning Bug comes along this walk, walking sideways, and bemeaning Phil all the time. He called him as hard names as he could. Phil was holding him off, telling him to stop,-stay off of him,-he did not want to hurt him. Just before the shooting Bug was walking, just keeping even with him. Phil was in this path, and says, ‘Stay off, and I will not shoot you.’ He kept on telling him, so when he got to this door, in front of Ora Shaw's room, there was an open space there between some beer kegs in the path that led to the privy, and there is where he made at him the last time, and Phil says, ‘Don't come on me;’ and he throwed his bosom back that way, and run his right hand back behind him, and says, ‘God d-n white-livered son of a bitch, I will make you shoot; you have not got nerve enough to shoot;’ and he made, I guess, two steps towards Phil. Then the shooting took place. Lightning Bug was considered a dangerous man.' Several witnesses were called, among them two policemen from Paducah, who testified the deceased was a dangerous man.

Under the assignments of error, plaintiff in error urges five grounds for reversal: First, the court erred in refusing to admit proper evidence on the part of the defendant; second, in giving improper instructions on the part of the people; and also in refusing proper instructions on the part of defendant; in overruling motion for a new trial; fourth, in rendering judgment on the verdict; fifth, the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence.

Did the court err in the instructions given on behalf of the people? Or, in other words, was the law properly presented to the jury, as applied to an officer whose duty it was to prevent breaches of the peace? Section 340 of the Criminal Code (Rev. St. 1895, p. 571) provides: ...