People v. Endress

• Decision Date: 20 February 1969
• Docket Number: Gen. Nos. 10943,11009 and 11010
• Citation: 106 Ill.App.2d 217,245 N.E.2d 26
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Karl ENDRESS, Defendant-Appellee. PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ronald Mack SEXTON and Roger Knell, Defendants-Appellees. The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff, v. Ronald Mack SEXTON and Roger Knell, Defendants. The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Hugh A. HENRY, Jr., Contemner-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 26

245 N.E.2d 26

106 Ill.App.2d 217

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Karl ENDRESS, Defendant-Appellee.

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ronald Mack SEXTON and Roger Knell, Defendants-Appellees.

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff, v. Ronald Mack SEXTON and Roger Knell, Defendants.

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Hugh A. HENRY, Jr., Contemner-Appellant.

Gen. Nos. 10943, 11009 and 11010.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District.

Feb. 20, 1969.

Hugh A. Henry, Jr., State's Atty., Bloomington, for appellant.

Donald B. Mackay, Public Defender, Robert E. Williams, William C. Wetzel, Ralph Schroeder, Special Prosecutor, Bloomington, for appellees.

CRAVEN, Justice.

Karl Endress was indicted for the crime of murder. Ronald Mack Sexton and Roger Knell were indicted for the offense of armed robbery. In each case, prior to trial, counsel for the defendants filed a motion for pretrial discovery asking the trial court to order the State's Attorney to produce for inspection certain items of physical evidence which would be introduced at the trial. Ultimately the trial court entered orders pursuant to the motions providing for pretrial discovery. In so doing the trial court specifically determined that the defendants could not have a fair trial or justice be served without the ordered pretrial discovery. The State's Attorney refused to comply with the orders. Motions to suppress the evidence were thereafter filed and allowed. Further, in the Sexton-Knell case the State's Attorney was adjudged to be in contempt of court and fined $100 for his refusal to comply with the order. This court now has for consideration appeals from the two orders suppressing the evidence and the order finding the State's Attorney in contempt of court.

Inasmuch as the substantive issues in all three appeals are the same, we have consolidated the appeals for decision and opinion.

The question presented by these cases is: Does a trial court have authority, absent specific rules promulgated by the Supreme Court, to provide for pretrial discovery of items of physical evidence which the People will introduce at the trial? If the answer to this question is in the affirmative, then the remaining issue relates to the question of what sanctions may appropriately be used by the trial court to compel compliance with its discovery order.

The defendant in the contempt proceedings, the then State's Attorney of McLean County, asserts the invalidity of the orders for discovery contending that there is no basis by statute or rule for pretrial discovery and that, therefore, a trial court is wholly lacking in authority to enter such an order. He persists in classifying these proceedings as 'test cases' and urged in the trial court, as well as here, that he would have made the items of physical evidence available to defense counsel prior to trial, and states:

'* * * the expression of the prosecutor was to make the evidence available prior to trial. Thus, the vacating of the orders by the trial court would have had the effect of giving to the defendants that which the trial court desired they be given, * * *.'

We take it to be the position of this appellant, therefore, that but for the order for discovery he would have permitted discovery. Once the order for discovery intervenes in the proceeding, however, he persists in his refusal, apparently only because of the existence of the order. We must observe at the outset that we are unable to understand the effort to distinguish between the absence of power of the trial court to compel discovery because there is no rule or statute and a state's attorney's duty to permit discovery except when there is a court order providing for it.

We are referred to two cases by the People which it is asserted are authority for the proposition that there is no such thing as pretrial criminal discovery in Illinois. The case of People v. Hall, 83 Ill.App.2d 402, 227 N.E.2d 773 (3d Dist. 1967), was a proceeding wherein there was a motion by the defendant for any written statements or memoranda containing statements made by witnesses for the People given to a law-enforcement officer. The motion was made prior to trial. An order for production pursuant to the motion was entered and thereafter a fine for contempt was levied for noncompliance. The Appellate Court reversed citing and discussing several Supreme Court cases indicating such statements only need be made available at the trial for impeachment purposes. The other case, People v. Hoagland, 83 Ill.App.2d 231, 227 N.E.2d 111 (2d Dist. 1967), likewise involved a motion prior to trial. In Hoagland, however, the motion was for an order for production of an entire file for inspection and copying by defense counsel. Upon noncompliance the indictment was quashed. On appeal the Appellate Court reversed holding that there was no unrestricted right to rummage through the files of the police and the State. Both Appellate Court opinions are, of course, in accord with the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court in People v. Moses, 11 Ill.2d 84, 142 N.E.2d 1 (1957), and People v. Wolff, 19 Ill.2d 318, 167 N.E.2d 197 (1960).

This court considered a similar issue in People v. Sumner, 72 Ill.App.2d 258, 218 N.E.2d 236 (4th Dist. 1966), and in the same case, at 92 Ill.App.2d 386, 234 N.E.2d 537 (4th Dist. 1968) (leave to appeal granted, Supreme Court No. 41363). Our conclusion in Sumner on the right to use of statements for impeachment purposes at the time of trial was in accord with Hall and Hoagland.

Those cases, however, are not deteminative of the issue here presented. Pretrial inspection of items of physical evidence which the prosecution intends to introduce at the trial cannot be equated with pretrial examination of statements which may or may not be germane for impeachment purposes. Indeed, the trial court quite correctly drew the distinction by its order in No. 11009 when it was provided that the prosecution: '* * * produce for inspection for the defense items of tangible evidence which (the) People will introduce at the trial of this case, but that as to statements, reports, documentation, or written investigative matters, the same shall be excepted, * * *.'

In People v. Tribbett, 90 Ill.App.2d 296, 232 N.E.2d 523 (4th Dist. 1967), we had occasion to consider the right of the defendant to inspect physical evidence prior to trial. In that case we concluded: 'In our opinion, tangible objects which the prosecution intends to offer, should be subject to inspection, if such is requested, * * *.' In Tribbett, however, we found no reversible error in a refusal to allow inspection for the obvious reason in that case that the only item of physical evidence sought to be inspected was the defendant's revolver of which he had knowledge. The Supreme Court, having allowed leave to appeal, affirmed in People v. Tribbett, 41 Ill.2d 267, 242 N.E.2d 249 (1968). Relevant to the issue of pretrial inspection of the revolver, the court said at 272 (242 N.E.2d at 252):

'We deem it unnecessary to consider whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion that the People 'make available to counsel for the defendant for inspection all items of tangible evidence which the People have in their possession or control or intend to introduce into evidence.' The only...