People v. Boston

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: THOMPSON
• Citation: People v. Boston, 309 Ill. 77, 139 N.E. 880 (Ill. 1923)
• Decision Date: 20 June 1923
• Docket Number: No. 15283.,15283.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. BOSTON.

309 Ill. 77

139 N.E. 880

PEOPLE

v.BOSTON.

No. 15283.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 20, 1923.

Error to Circuit Court, Marion County; F. R. Dove, Judge.

Gerald Boston was convicted of having carnal knowledge of a female under the age of 16 years, and brings error.

Reversed and remanded.

Noleman, Smith & Dallstream, of Centralia, and E. B. Vandervort, of Salem, for plaintiff in error.

Edward J. Brundage, Atty. Gen., Charles F. Dew, State's Atty., of Centralia, and James B. Searcy, of Springfield, for the People.

THOMPSON, J.

Plaintiff in error, Gerald Boston, a male person over the age of 17 years, was convicted at the September, 1922, term of the circuit court of Marion county of the crime of having carnal knowledge of Bulah Huddleston, an unmarried female person under the age of 16 years, and was sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for the minimum term of one year.

By a challenge to the array plaintiff in error questions the method of selecting the jury list from which the jurors who tried this cause were drawn, and also the method of drawing said jurors. W. H. Betts, county clerk, testified that in September, 1921, the county board selected a list of persons to serve as jurors; that this list was on file in his office when the jurors who were to serve during the September, 1922, term of the circuit court were drawn; that at the September meeting each year each supervisor elected in April of that year presents to the county clerk a list containing one-tenth of the legal voters of his town; that each of the new supervisors then selects from this jury list the persons who are to be placed on the short list from which the jurors are to be drawn; that no other jurors are selected from the jury list; that the names selected by the several supervisors are by the county clerk written on slips of cardboard; that the names submitted by the individual supervisors are kept separate, a rubber band being placed around each bundle of cardboard slips; that there are seventeen towns in the county, the town of Centralia having 12 precincts; that when persons are drawn for jury service a proportionate number is drawn from each town; that when the short list from any town is exhausted the county clerk calls the supervisor's attention to it and he selects another group from the jury list, and the names of the persons in this new group are written on cards and kept in a separate bundle for future drawing; that when the persons who were to serve as jurors in the circuit court during the two weeks when plaintiff in error was tried were drawn, the circuit clerk came to the office of the county clerk; that it was decided to draw 36 names for the two weeks' service; that in order to distribute the jurors drawn among the several towns the county judge and the county clerk decided how many were to be drawn from each town; that the rubber band was removed from the bundle of cards from the town of Alma, which was first on the list alphabetically, and these names were placed in the box kept for the purpose; that the box was well shaken by witness; that the circuit clerk was blindfolded; that the county judge told him to draw from the box the number of cards theretofore agreed upon, which was either two or three; that the circuit clerk drew the number specified; that the remaining cards were then taken from the box and a rubber band placed around them; that the cards made up from the list selected from the town of Centralia were then placed in the box and the circuit clerk directed to draw therefrom six or eight cards; that this method was continued until a certain agreed number was selected from each of the 17 towns; that the board of supervisors has nothing to do with the apportioning of these names among the several towns. The record of the proceedings of the board of supervisors for the September, 1921, meeting contains this minute:

‘The time having arrived for the filling of the jury list, the several supervisors submit their lists. On motion the names submitted are to constitute the petit jurors for the ensuing year.’

The act concerning jurors provides that the county board of each county shall annually, at or before its September meeting, make a list of not less than one-tenth of the legal voters of each town or precinct in the county, to be known as the jury list, and that the persons selected for jury service shall be taken from this list until it is exhausted or until the expiration of two years from the time of making such list, when a new list shall be made. In all counties in this state except Cook, the county board shall in September of each year select from the jury list a number of persons equal to 100 for each trial term of the circuit court, and other courts of record except county courts, which may be provided by law to be held during the succeeding year, to serve as petit jurors. When this selected list has been filed with the county clerk, he is required to write the name and residence of each person selected upon a separate ticket, and he is then required to place the whole number of tickets containing the names of the persons selected by the county board from the jury list to serve as petit jurors during the year into a box to be kept by him for that purpose. At least 20 days before the first day of any trial term of the circuit court the clerk of such court shall go to the office of the county clerk and in the presence of the county judge and the county clerk, after the box containing all of the names of those selected for petit jury service has been well shaken by the county clerk, shall, after being blindfolded, without partiality draw from said box the names of not less than 30 persons for each two weeks such court will probably be in session for the trial of common-law cases, to constitute the petit jurors for that term.

The language of the statute is so simple and so plain that it seems strange that there should be such a want of compliance with its provisions as this record shows. Nothing seems to have been done as the statute directs. As we understand the record, supervisors from one-half of the towns of the county furnish a jury list each year. From this list each of the new supervisors (those elected in the preceding April) selects a few names from his town to be placed on cards and used for the purpose of drawing persons to serve as petit jurors. When the circuit clerk goes to the county clerk's office to draw persons for jury service, he is directed by the county clerk and the county judge to draw a few from each of 17 boxes. Toward the end of the year, if there were but two persons left on the list for any particular town and the county judge...