People v. Sims
| Decision Date | 18 March 1943 |
| Docket Number | No. 27048.,27048. |
| Citation | 47 N.E.2d 703,382 Ill. 472 |
| Parties | PEOPLE v. SIMS. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Error to Circuit Court, Ford County; Chalmer C. Taylor, Judge.
Ariel Sims was found to be a criminal of sexual psychopathic person, and was committed to the Psychopathic Division of the Illinois State Penitentiary, and he brings error.
Order of commitment affirmed.
R. E. Smith, of Benton, for plaintiff in error.
George F. Barrett, Atty. Gen., and Claude M. Swanson, State's Atty., of Paxton, for the People.
Plaintiff in error was found, in the circuit court of Ford county, by the verdict of a jury, to be a criminal sexual psychopathic person, and was committed to the Department of Public Welfare with directions to confine him in the Psychopathic Division of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Menard until he shall have fully and permanently recovered. He seeks review of those proceedings and brings the cause by writ of error directly to this court, claiming that the act under which he was committed is unconstitutional.
The proceedings are founded upon an act entitled: Ill.Rev.Stat.1941, chap. 38, pars. 820 to 825, incl. Section 1 of the act is a definition of criminal sexual psychopathic persons. It provides as follows: ‘All persons suffering from a mental disorder, and not insane or feebleminded, which mental disorder has existed for a period of not less than one (1) year, immediately prior to the filing of the petition hereinafter provided for, coupled with criminal propensities to the commission of sex offenses, are hereby declared to be criminal sexual psychopathic persons.’ It is provided by section 3 that when any person is charged with a criminal offense and it shall appear to the Attorney General or State's Attorney of the county in which the person is so charged, that such person is a criminal sexual psychopathic person, the Attorney General or State's Attorney ‘may file with the clerk of the court in the same proceeding wherein such person stands charged with criminal offense, a petition in writing setting forth facts tending to show that the person named is a criminal sexual psychopathic person.’ By section 4 it is provided that the court may appoint two psychiatrists to examine the accused and file their report as to his condition together with recommendations. By section 5 it is provided that before the trial on the criminal offense charged, a hearing on the petition filed shall be had before a jury, to ascertain whether the person charged is a criminal sexual psychopathic person. This hearing is provided after notice and service of a copy of the petition on the person so charged. It is also provided in section 5: ‘Upon such hearing it shall be competent to introduce evidence of the commission by the said person of any number of crimes together with whatever punishments, if any, were inflicted.’ Section 6 of the act provides that after commitment an application in writing may be filed setting forth that the criminal sexual psychopathic person has recovered. This petition shall be filed in the committing court and a jury shall be impaneled to ascertain whether such person has recovered, and upon the verdict of the jury that such person has fully recovered, the court shall order such person discharged from the custody of the Department of Public Safety and committed to the custody of the sheriff to stand trial for the criminal offense charged against him.
Plaintiff in error brings here only the common-law record in which he has included the petition of the State's Attorney, in which it is stated that plaintiff in error was charged in the circuit court of Ford county, by indictment, with taking indecent liberties with a minor female child of the age of eight years, and recites that other complaints of like character had been filed against him, and requests that an inquiry be had, that two qualified psychiatrists make an examination of him and report, and that a hearing on the petition be had as early as possible after ten days from the filing thereof. The record filed here by plaintiff in error also includes the report of the psychiatrists and the order of the court committing plaintiff in error to the Department of Public Welfare. The order recites that a jury was impaneled and that the psychiatrists filed their report.
The grounds upon which it is alleged that the act violates constitutional provisions are that it unjustly discriminates between criminal sexual psychopathic persons who are charged with crime and those who are not, and it is argued that under this act no petition may be filed or hearing had thereon unless and until the accused is charged with crime, and that such affords no basis for reasonable classification, as required by our State and Federal constitutions.
Section 1 is a definition of criminal sexual psychopathic persons. There can...
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