People v. Wilson

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: GUNN
• Citation: People v. Wilson, 400 Ill. 461, 81 N.E.2d 211 (Ill. 1948)
• Decision Date: 15 September 1948
• Docket Number: No. 30410.,30410.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. WILSON.

400 Ill. 461

81 N.E.2d 211

PEOPLE

v.WILSON.

No. 30410.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

May 20, 1948.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Sept. 15, 1948.

Error to Circuit Court, Jasper County; James G. Burnside, judge.

Homer W. Wilson was convicted of murder, and he brings error.

Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

Albert E. Isley, of Newton, Parker, Bauer & Parker, of Effingham, and John B. Swern, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

George F. Barrett, Atty. Gen., and J. A. Eaton, State's Atty., of Newton (Norma Eaton, of Newton, and W. K. Kidwell, of Mattoon, of counsel), for the People.

GUNN, Justice.

The defendant, Homer W. Wilson, was indicted in the circuit court of Jasper County for the crime of murder of his wife; tried by a jury and found guilty, and his punishment fixed at death. He has prosecuted a writ of error to this court.

At the outset the State's Attorney contends that the report of the proceedings should not be considered by this court because it was not authenticated and filed in accordance with Supreme Court Rule 70A, Ill.Rev.Stat.1947, c. 110, s 259.70 A. The point of the State's Attorney is without merit. The trial ended on May 25, 1947. A motion for a new trial was argued June 28, 1947, and the sentence imposed upon the defendant on that date, fixing the time of his execution at September 12, 1947, which was five days after the convening of the next succeeding term of the Supreme Court, as provided by section 1 of division XIV of the Criminal Code. Ill.Rev.Stat.1947, chap. 38, par. 749.

The provisions of Rule 70A do not apply to writs of error in capital cases, as there is a special statutory proceeding which governs in such cases. In the case of a defendant in the criminal case, who is adjudged to suffer capital punishment, he is not entitled to a writ of error as a matter of right. Section 1 of division XV of the Criminal Code (par. 769) provides in substance that he shall obtain a certified copy of the record from the clerk and a certificate from the judge who tried the case that such record contains a full and complete history of the proceedings, and shall present such transcript and certificate, with his assignment of errors, to the Supreme Court, if in session, or to one of the judges thereof in vacation; and if such court or judge shall allow a writ of error, he shall endorse upon the back of the transcript an order that the same shall be a supersedeas. Upon the filing of such transcript and order, the clerk of the Supreme Court shall issue a supersedeas to stay the sentence of death until the further order of the court.

It will be noted that the statute provides that no date for execution shall be fixed sooner than the fifth day of the next succeeding term of the Supreme Court. This may be more than the 50 days allowed for writs of error in some cases as fixed in Rule 70A, as, for instance, in the present case. If the sentence had been imposed at the close of the trial on May 25, more than three months would have elapsed before the next term of the Supreme Court convened. More than that, the statute provides a writ of error in a capital case may be allowed upon and after an inspection of the certified copy of the record, duly authenticated by the judge, without fixing any time for its authentification. In the instant case the record was presented at the September term before the fifth day of the term, and the supersedeas authorized by the court. The objection of the People to the record in this case is without merit.

The facts in the case are very unusual. The defendant, Homer W. Wilson, was a young farmer, twenty-eight years of age, married to the deceased, LaVerne Wilson, and had one child, a little over a year old. His wife, LaVerne, suffered death in a fire on the morning of February 3, 1947. She and the defendant were married October 17, 1945, shortly after the defendant had been discharged from the army. On the afternoon of February 2, 1947, the defendant, his wife and child, visited at the home of his father, and returned home in the evening, bringing with them a considerable quantity of canned fruits and vegetables, and after these had been removed to the house, the defendant and his wife retired at about nine P.M.

His version of the tragedy is as follows: He arose the morning of February 3 around about 4:30, and started immediately performing farm work, feeding corn to his livestock, and pumping the water in a tank for their needs. His wife arose a few minutes later and around about 5:30 or 5:45 went to the barn, some distance from the house. Shortly after she went to the barn the defendant heard screams, and ran to her assistance, but was unable to get into the barn on account of the flames. He lost his outer clothing in some manner in the fire, and jumped in the water tank in his underwear. He suffered some burns himself, the fire resulting in the total destruction of the barn, which contained some grain and over 2000 bales of hay. He denies killing his wife, or any knowledge of what was the actual cause of her death. The prosecution claims this statement is wholly false, and that the defendant murdered his wife in the house, and transported her body to the barn, where he set the fire, which partially consumed the remains, after she had already been killed.

The case is entirely circumstantial. The only direct proof of the corpus delicti is the fact that the body was identified as that of LaVerne Wilson. Proof to establish the criminal agency, and the author of the criminal agency is wholly circumstantial. The testimony bearing upon the tragedy from other witnesses shows substantially the following: That on the morning of February 3, 1947, neighbors seeing the fire, came to the home of the defendant to render assistance. A number of them attended. It is unnecessary to go over the testimony of all of these witnesses in detail, as it is substantially the same, and not in any material respect denied by the defendant.

Millard Davis, who lived within a quarter of a mile of the place, testified there was a clear view between his place and that of the defendant, and that around 6:30 of the morning of February 3, 1947, while looking out of his kitchen window, he noticed a light near the north end of the Wilson barn, and after watching for a minute, saw it burst into flame, with fire coming from the east and north sides of the barn, which spread very rapidly in a strong south wind. Stoie B. Maxey was the first neighbor to arrive, around about 6:30. He ran to his car with his brother and drove quickly to the fire; they were there within five minutes, but when they arrived the barn was aflame, and they saw the defendant as they drove in, who had no clothes on but his underwear, and in answer to a question as to what had happened said: ‘I don't know, but Sis (his wife) is in the barn.’ They tried to get in the barn, but the flames were so strong they could not enter. One of the Maxeys took the defendant into the house. It was dark, and there was no lamp burning, and the baby was still lying in bed asleep. The defendant removed his underwear, and laid same across the bed. There was evidence they had been burned, and were wet. Salve was rubbed on the burns of the defendant, which were on the upper edges of both ears, back of the left hand, side of the left leg, and back part of the left foot. When asked why his wife was going to the barn he replied he did not know, unless she was going after eggs.

A number of the neighbors testified to substantially the same facts. The defendant was shortly after that taken in an ambulance to the hospital. The other neighbors finding they could not put out the fire threw water on the chicken house, so that it would not burn, the water being obtained from a barnlot well, at which there was a stock tank that had ice on the bottom about an inch thick. No part of the clothing of the defendant was found, except one boot, which was not identified, nor admitted by the defendant to be his.

During the course of the morning the fire department from Oblong came to the scene of the fire. By that time the building and contents had been practically consumed, and they proceeded to take steps to recover the body. The embers were to hot to probe, so means were devised of getting a road drag and pulling it through the embers and ashes to get the body out. This drag weighed some three or four hundred pounds, and had blades which could be adjusted by a lever, for the purpose of smoothing or scraping earth upon the public roads. It was made of iron or steel. A long chain was attached to it, and by a tractor it was dragged through the smoldering fire. After a few drags they pulled out the remains of a calf, and also pieces of a lantern, and finally from near the northwest corner of the barn the body of the deceased was dragged out. It is uncertain whether the drag had been over this part of the premises, but most of the witnesses claim it had not been. The body was badly mutilated and burned; the lower parts of both arms were missing, and the top of the cranium or skull cap was off, exposing the brain. A portion of skull bone was found in the ashes after the embers had cooled. Also, there was a large gaping wound in the throat exposing the spinal vertebrae, and there were several other lacerations on the body. The body of the calf was torn up and badly mutilated.

The doctor who conducted the autopsy gave it as his opinion that the deceased had not died from the fire, but from wounds produced before the fire. He was also of the opinion that none of the wounds or mutilation were caused by the road grader while dragging the body from the ashes, and that these wounds were the cause of death. One of the doctors for the defense testified that in his opinion the wounds on the body, and the loss of the arms and the top part of the skull was caused by the road grader going over the body. The two doctors who first examined the body, after it was recovered, admitted...