People v. Dukes
| Decision Date | 18 May 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 35375,35375 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. James DUKES, Plaintiff in Error. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Charles A. Bellows, and Jason Ernest Bellows, Chicago (Sherman C. Magidson, Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.
Grenville Beardsley, Atty. Gen. and Benjamin S. Adamowski, State's Atty., Chicago , for defendant in error.
James Dukes, referred to herein as defendant, was tried by jury in the criminal court of Cook County for the murder of John Blyth, a Chicago police officer. He was found guilty, and punishment was fixed at death. For errors occurring at the trial we reversed that judgment and remanded the cause for a new trial. People v. Dukes, 12 Ill.2d 334, 146 N.E.2d 14, 67 A.L.R.2d 724. He was again tried for the same crime, again convicted, and once more sentenced to death. A writ of error has been issued to review this judgment. Defendant contends on this writ of error that the evidence was insufficient to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, that the trial court improperly denied a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, that the trial court erred in refusing to give certain instructions and that defendant was deprived of due process of law and the equal protection of the laws by reason of an alleged systematic exclusion of Negroes from the jury.
The crime with which defendant was charged took place shortly after midnight in the vicinity of West 47th Street and South Wells Street in the city of Chicago. Forty-seventh Street runs east and west and Wells Street runs north and south and intersects 47th Street. The New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church is situated at the southwest corner of this intersection. The State's evidence established the following facts. On the night of the crime the Reverend Jesse James Butcher, pastor of the church, and several members of the church, including Thomas Sylvester and Charles Liggons, were decorating the church. At about 12:20 A.M. they heard a woman screaming and went outside to investigate and saw a man, identified as defendant, beating a woman. Sylvester asked him to move away as he was disturbing the work in the church. An argument ensued and defendant drew a gun and shot Sylvester and then fired two more shots, one of which struck Liggons. After the shooting defendant and the woman ran across the street.
Two police officers, John Blyth and Daniel Rolewicz, who had been patrolling the neighborhood, heard the shots while they were standing on the corner of 47th Street and Wentworth Street, one block to the east of Wells Street. They proceeded on foot west on 47th Street toward Wells Street with Blyth on the south side of the street and Rolewicz on the north side and with Rolewicz about fifty feet ahead of Blyth. When Rolewicz reached the building at 216 47th Street he saw defendant run north across 47th Street to a point just ahead of Rolewicz. Rolewicz noticed that defendant had one hand under his vest and he shouted at defendant, Without a reply defendant drew a gun from under the vest and fired two shots a Rolewicz and fled south across 47th Street. When the shots were fired by defendant Rolewicz fell to the ground and from his prone position he fired twice at defendant as he was fleeing. Rolewicz was uninjured by defendant's shots and after firing these two shots he immediately got up and ran after defendant. Rolewicz did not notice what Blyth had been doing while this shooting was going on. When Rolewicz got up to the corner of 47th Street and Wells Street defendant was out of sight. Rolewicz saw Blyth turn into an alley which runs from west to east commencing at a point of Wells Street somewhat south of 47th Street. Just as Blyth was entering the alley a shot rang out and Blyth fell down. Rolewicz then saw defendant run out of the alley, jump over Blyth's body and run south on Wells Street. Up to this point Rolewicz had not fired any shots other than the two which he fired from his prone position on 47th Street. He ran after defendant and fired the four remaining shots in his gun at defendant.
The Reverend Butcher testified that after the shooting in front of his church he went inside to make a phone call and while he was there he heard more gun fire. He again went outside and saw defendant coming from 47th Street running south on the sidewalk on the east side of Wells Street. He saw defendant run into the alley and saw Blyth as he approached the alley. Butcher testified that when Blyth got to about the middle of the entrance to the alley he turned to look east down the alley. Butcher then saw a flash of gun fire coming from the alley and saw Blyth fall to the ground.
A short time later other police officers found defendant hiding in a vacant lot a short distance from the scene of the crime. When he was found he had a .380 caliber Czechoslovakian automatic in his possession. It was brought out at the trial that the gun used by officer Rolewicz on this occasion was a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber pistol which was chambered so as to shoot either regular .38 ammunition or magnum ammunition. Officer Blyth's gun was a regular Smith & Wesson .38 pistol which would only shoot standard .38 caliber ammunition. A police officer testified that he had made a search of the vicinity and had recovered a lead pellet imbedded in a door frame in a building on the west side of Wells Street at a point about eighty-seven feet from the alley. This pellet had gone through a plate glass window and imbedded itself in the wooden frame. Expert testimony at the trial established that this pellet had been fired from defendant's gun. Four used cartridge cases were introduced in evidence at the trial and all of these were established as having been used in defendant's gun. Two of them had been found near the church, one of them on 47th Street, and one near the entrance of the alley. A lead pellet was found near the body of John Blyth but there was no testimony at the trial to show from what gun it had been fired.
In defense, defendant testified that on the night of the shooting he had been drinking in several taverns and that he was abusing his girl friend because of his intoxicated condition. He testified that at the time of the argument in front of the church one of the men grabbed his girl friend and he saw another pull a knife and it was because of these facts that he pulled his gun and fired. He further testified that after he left the church and was walking east along 47th Street he was approached by an unidentified man who drew a gun on him and that he fired at this man and then ran across 47th Street back to Wells Street and then south on Wells Street. He testified that when he got to the alley he turned east and ran through that alley to where it was jointed by another and then turned south. He testified that he had been shot twice in the exchange of fire with Rolewicz and that because of his wounds he went to a vacant lot where he laid down in a semiconscious condition and that he did not remember anything thereafter until he was taken to the hospital.
Charles M. Wilson, the Director of the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, testified at the trial as a court's witness. In addition to identifying the cartridges and pellets as related above, he testified that defendant's gun when fired would emit a flash of light which might be up to twenty inches long. He compared this light...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Teague v. Lane, 84-2474
...439; People v. Butler (1970), 46 Ill.2d 162, 263 N.E.2d 89; People v. Cross (1968), 40 Ill.2d 85, 237 N.E.2d 437; People v. Dukes (1960), 19 Ill.2d 532, 169 N.E.2d 84; People v. Harris (1959), 17 Ill.2d 446, 161 N.E.2d 809. People v. Payne, 99 Ill.2d 135, 152-53, 75 Ill.Dec. 643, 651-52, 45......
-
People v. Newsome
... ... Alabama (1965), 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759, and the following Illinois Supreme Court cases: People v. King (1973), 54 Ill.2d 291, 298, 296 N.E.2d 731; People v. Butler (1970), 46 Ill.2d 162, 164-65, 263 N.E.2d 89; People v. Dukes (1960), 19 Ill.2d 532, 540, 169 [110 Ill.App.3d 1051] N.E.2d 84; and People v. Harris (1959), 17 Ill.2d 446, 450-51, 161 N.E.2d 809, cert. denied, 362 U.S. 928, 80 S.Ct. 755, 4 L.Ed.2d 747. 2 ... Swain involved an Alabama black convicted of rape and sentenced to death. He ... ...
-
People v. Gilliard
... ... Powell, 53 Ill.2d 465, 292 N.E.2d 409 (1973); People v. Petty, 3 Ill.App.3d 951, 279 N.E.2d 509 (1972); People v. Fort, 133 Ill.App.2d 473, 273 N.E.2d 439 (1971); People v. Butler, 46 Ill.2d 162, 263 N.E.2d 89 (1970); People v. Cross, 40 Ill.2d 85, 237 N.E.2d 437 (1968); People v. Dukes, 19 Ill.2d 532, 169 N.E.2d 84 (1960); and People v. Harris, 17 Ill.2d 446, 161 N.E.2d 809 (1959). In addition, the issue has been substantially raised in People v. Banks, Ill.App. 1st Dist., Docket No. 79-1550, a case which has been argued but has not yet been decided. All but four of these ... ...
-
People v. Lewis
...use of force, but the defense witnesses denied the defendant used force). The Freeman court relied in part on People v. Dukes, 19 Ill.2d 532, 169 N.E.2d 84 (1960). In Dukes, the defendant was convicted of the first degree murder of Chicago police officer John Blyth. Id. at 533, 169 N.E.2d 8......