People v. Kemp
| Decision Date | 26 November 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 36246,36246 |
| Citation | 29 Ill.2d 321,194 N.E.2d 217 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Thomas E. KEMP, Plaintiff in Error. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Francois H. Jas, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.
William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Daniel P. Ward, State's Atty., Chicago , for defendant in error.
Defendant was convicted of robbery and sentenced to the penitentiary for a minimum of 19 years and a miximum of 20 years. He assigns as error the admission into evidence of a confession which he claims was not voluntarily given, improper instructions to the jury, and denial of his motion for new trial on the argument of the prosecutor to the jury.
Defendant confessed after having been held in custody some 28 hours. He does not make any contention that the questioning to which he was subjected was itself sufficiently coercive or too extended. The defendant complains of specific acts.
Defendant contends that on May 26, when he was arrested, and again on May 27, when he confessed, he was severly beaten and cajoled by three police officers in the 7th District Police Station in Chicago (called the Woodlawn Station) and that he was made promises of a lighter treatment if he would confess and that in order to avoid further bodily injury and in consideration for not being indicted under the Habitual Criminal Act, he signed the confession, which he claims he did not read.
Defendant testified that on May 26, 1958, he was arrested at 12:30 P.M. and taken to the Woodlawn Police Station; he was put in the lockup until about 3:00 P.M. that day and again he was taken to the second floor and interrogated by three officers. Officer George Kobar interrogated him. At no time did Kobar hit him, but he testified that at one point one of the others said he did not believe him and hit him in the stomach. He refused to sign a confession About an hour later, he again was examined by the same three officers. He testified he was struck by them several times with their fists and although it was suggested he confess, he refused to do so. The next morning the same three officers questioned him. He says that officer Kobar told him he would give him a break if he would sign the confession. Thereafter, the other two officers struck him in the neck and knocked him over. He was sent back downstairs until evening. In the evening he was brought up again, interrogated by the same three men and again hit when he denied the crime. The confession was handed him all written up and he says he then signed it.
He was in three show-ups. The first one was fifteen or twenty minutes after he arrived at the station where he was identified by Robert Willin. A second show-up was held the evening of the 26th at about 6:00 P.M. where the robbery victim, Reynold Mitchell, identified him out of five men.
At the preliminary hearing on the petition of defendant to suppress the confession, after defendant's testimony of the alleged violence to him, the prosecution called as witnesses three police officers. The first one, George Kobar, testified that he interrogated defendant at about 11:30 o'clock on May 27 at the time of the confession and that officers Richard Dickson and Walter McCarthy were present. All of these officers testified they did not strike defendant or see anyone strike him. Kobar said he made no promises to defendant and heard no one make any promises to him. Kobar said he told defendant that he had nothing going for him, that he had a record of previous convictions, and that he might just as well confess. After the State's testimony, defendant resumed the stand and repeated that no typing was done in the interrogating room, that there were other unidentified officers present who beat him and that he signed without having read the statement. The court denied the motion to suppress.
Officer George Kobar testified that he first saw defendant at about 1:30 P.M. on May 26 at the station and at that time defendant made an oral statement to him that he committed the crime in question. At 11:20 A.M., the following day, Kobar says he took the confession in the presence of officers McCarthy and Dickson. No one else was present. Dickson typed the questions and answers of the confession to the robbery in the instant case.
As we stated in People v. Sims, 21 Ill.2d 425, 173...
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People v. Smith
...drawn from the evidence. In this context, the argument was permissible. People v. Pargone, 327 Ill. 463, 158 N.E. 716; People v. Kemp, 29 Ill.2d 321, 194 N.E.2d 217. As to the language that defendant insists was inflammatory and derogatory, we conclude that it lacks these characteristics. B......
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...State Penitentiary. The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court on November 26, 1963, People v. Kemp, 29 Ill.2d 321, 194 N.E.2d 217 (1963). On December 1, 1964, petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that the trial court erred in failing ......
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