People v. Dodge

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: MAXWELL
• Citation: People v. Dodge, 411 Ill. 549, 104 N.E.2d 633 (Ill. 1952)
• Decision Date: 20 March 1952
• Docket Number: No. 32214,32214
• Parties: PEOPLE v. DODGE.

Page 633

104 N.E.2d 633

411 Ill. 549

PEOPLE v. DODGE.

No. 32214.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 20, 1952.

Oliver Dodge, pro se.

Ivan A. Elliott, Atty. Gen., and Michael A. Shore, State's Atty., of Peoria (David C. McCarthy, of Peoria, and Harry L. Pate, of Tuscola, of counsel), for the People.

MAXWELL, Justice.

Plaintiff in error, Oliver Dodge, was convicted in the circuit court of Peoria County at the September term, 1933, for the crime of murder and was sentenced, on a plea of guilty, to 150 years in the penitentiary. He now seeks a review of that conviction by writ of error, pro se, on the common-law record alone.

The plaintiff in error assigns as errors that, (1) the indictment was insufficient to charge him with the crime of murder; (2) the court failed to enter a finding and verdict prior to the sentence; (3) and sentence was vague and indefinite; and (4) the record fails to show a waiver of trial by jury.

The record discloses that plaintiff in error, by his counsel, challenged the sufficiency of the indictment in the lower court by motion to quash. That motion was heard by the court and overruled. The motion is not a part of the record before us nor does the plaintiff in error specify wherein the indictment is insufficient. The indictment, which is a part of the record here, discloses that it charges that the plaintiff in error, Oliver Dodge, alias John Doe, on a day certain, within Peoria County, Illinois, did unlawfully, feloniously and wilfully, with malice aforethought, with a specifically described weapon, in a particularly described manner, wound a specific person, who died of that wound on the same day, and charged that the plaintiff in error did then and there kill and murder that person. We are unable to find any flaw in this indictment. People v. Corder, 306 Ill. 264, 137 N.E. 845.

Plaintiff in error's contention that the court was without jurisdiction to enter sentence without first entering a finding and verdict has no merit. The record shows that he entered a plea of guilty and under such plea, it follows, as a legal inference, that the court finds him guilty and it is unnecessary for the court to enter such finding. People v. Bute, 396 Ill. 588, 72 N.E.2d 813; People v. Andrae, 295 Ill. 445, 129 N.E. 178; People v. Werner, 364 Ill. 594, 5 N.E.2d 238.

The sentence imposed, which is alleged to be vague and uncertain, reads as follows: 'Therefore, it is ordered and adjudged by the Court that the said defendant Oliver Dodge, alias John Doe, be taken from the bar of this Court to the common jail of said Peoria County, from whence he came, and from thence by the Sheriff of said Peoria County, to the Penitentiary of this State at Joliet, and be delivered to the Warden or Keeper of said Penitentiary, and the said Warden or Keeper is hereby required and commanded to take the body of said defendant Oliver Dodge alias John Doe from and after the delivery thereof, and confine him in said Penitentiary in safe and secure custody for a term of One Hundred Fifty (150) years or until discharged by the...