People v. Rice
| Decision Date | 06 April 1917 |
| Docket Number | No. 11143.,11143. |
| Citation | 115 N.E. 631,277 Ill. 521 |
| Parties | PEOPLE v. RICE. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Error to First Branch, Appellate Court, First District, on Error to Municipal Court of Chicago; Joseph Z. Uhlir, Judge.
Lewis E. Rice was convicted of being ‘an inmate of a house of prostitution for the practice of fornication,’ and he brings error. Reversed.Maurice J. Slater, of Chicago (Rudolph Frankenstein, of Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.
P. J. Lucey, Atty. Gen., Maclay Hoyne, State's Atty., of Chicago, and Eugene P. Morris, of Watseka (Edward E. Wilson, of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.
An information was filed in the municipal court of Chicago charging Lewis E. Rice, plaintiff in error, with being unlawfully and knowingly an inmate of a certain house of prostitution and assignation and place for the practice of fornication, prostitution, and lewdness. The information was filed under section 57al of the Criminal Code. Trial was had in the municipal court without a jury, and the court found plaintiff in error guilty of being ‘an inmate of a house of prostitution for the practice of fornication,’ and judgment was rendered accordingly. This judgment was affirmed by the Appellate Court for the First District.
Upon the trial it developed that the plaintiff in error was a male. The house in which it was alleged that he was an inmate was a hotel in the city of Chicago, and plaintiff in error was employed there as clerk, working from 6 o'clock in the evening until 6 o'clock in the morning. He did not reside there, but was in the house only during the time he was engaged in his duties as clerk.
It is first contended that the plaintiff in error, being a male, does not come within the description of an inmate of a house of ill fame or assignation. Section 57al of the Criminal Code is as follows:
‘Whoever is an inmate of a house of ill fame or assignation, or place for the practice of fornication or prostitution or lewdness, or who shall solicit to prostitution in any street, alley, park or other place in any city, village or incorporated town in this state, shall be fined not exceeding $200, or imprisoned in the county jail or house of correction for a period of not more than one (1) year, or both.’
This section was added to the Criminal Code in 1915. Prior to that time being an inmate of a house of ill fame or assignation did not constitute a crime, and, as it was not a crime at common law, such a person could not be punished. The question arises whether a male is included under the description of an inmate of a house of ill fame or assignation. It is contended on the part of the people that this is settled by the definition of the word ‘inmate’ as given by recognized lexicographers. The definition ordinarily given for the word ‘inmate,’ standing alone, does not determine this point. The word ‘inmate’ is not used in this statute in its general sense, but in a restricted sense. It is confined to...
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