Thompson v. People

Citation32 N.E. 968,144 Ill. 378
PartiesTHOMPSON v. PEOPLE.
Decision Date19 January 1893
CourtSupreme Court of Illinois

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Error to criminal court of Cook county; FRANCIS ADAMS, Judge.

Indictment of John K. Thompson for assault with intent to commit murder. Defendant was convicted, and be brings error. Reversed.

C. W. Dwight, for plaintiff in error.

George Hunt, Atty. Gen., for the People.

CRAIG, J.

This was an indictment against John K. Thompson for an assault with an intent to commit murder with a revolver, etc., upon one Aaron Minnick, in Cook county. To the indictment the defendant pleaded not guilty, and on a trial the jury found the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment, and fixed his punishment at imprisonment in the penltentiary for the term of four years. The difficulty which resulted in the defendant's indictment occurred at the village of Desplaines, in Cook county, and as to the principal facts there is no substantial dispute. It appears from the record that in the afternoon of the assault the defendant, Thompson, who was somewhat in liquor, was at the railroad bridge crossing the Desplaines river, and while there, standing on the bridge, he, in company with witness Wickle, shot at some leaves upon the water with his revolver. Robert Cain, a night policeman at Desplaines, had his attention called to Thompson by one of the trustees of the village, who said that Mr. Thompson was shooting in the corporation, which was against village ordinances. When Thompson started for home from where he was shooting he was accosted by Cain and a village trustee, Aaron Minnick; and Cain said to Thompson, ‘You know it is against the village ordinances to be shooting in the corporation, and you know it is against the law to be carrying concealed weapons.’ He said he did not know it was against village ordinances to shoot in the corporation. Cain then requested Thompson to give up his revolver, which Thompson refused to do. Then Cain and Minnick approached Thompson, and undertook to take the revolver from him by force, and in the melee Thompson fired four shots, two of which took effect,-one on Cain, the other on Minnick. Neither, however, proved to be dangerous. No warrant had been issued for Thompson's arrest, nor was any effort made to arrest him before the assault, for the violation of any ordinance or law. This is apparent from the evidence of both prosecuting witnesses, Cain and Minnick, who testify that they did not go to Thompson for the purpose of arresting him, nor attempted to arrest him, but merely to take his revolver from him.

Several errors are relied upon by counsel for the plaintiff in error to reverse the judgment, but we will only consider one of them, as that is conclusive of the case. It appears from the bill of exceptions contained in the record that during the argument of the case before the jury the presiding judge left the court room, and entered his private room, and remained out...

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26 cases
  • Peri v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 18 Enero 1983
    ...So. 950 (1898); Smith v. Sherwood, 95 Wis. 558, 70 N.W. 682 (1897); Palin v. State, 38 Neb. 862, 57 N.W. 743 (1894); Thompson v. People, 144 Ill. 378, 32 N.E. 968 (1893); O'Brien v. People, 17 Colo. 561, 31 P. 230 (1892). See also Heflin v. United States, 125 F.2d 700 (5th Cir.1942); State ......
  • People v. Vargas
    • United States
    • Illinois Supreme Court
    • 21 Noviembre 1996
    ... ... The appellate court misinterpreted this court's decisions in Meredeth v. People, 84 Ill. 479, 482-83 (1877), Thompson v. People, 144 Ill. 378, 381, 32 N.E. 968 (1893), and Schintz v. People, 178 Ill. 320, 326, 52 N.E. 903 (1899), as having established a harmless error standard by which to measure the legal effect of a trial judge's absence from the bench ...         In Meredeth, this court held that a ... ...
  • Freeman v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • 25 Agosto 1915
    ... ... H ... Snowden Marshall, U.S. Atty., and Goldthwaite H. Dorr and ... Claude A. Thompson, Sp. Asst. U.S. Attys., all of New York ... Before ... LACOMBE, WARD, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges ... ROGERS, ... Circuit ... In such ... a case there is but a single judgment for the whole amount to ... which the plaintiff established his right. In People ex ... rel. Tweed v. Liscomb, 60 N.Y. 559, 575, 19 Am.Rep. 211 ... (1875), the New York Court of Appeals, in speaking of cases ... in which it ... ...
  • State v. Carnagy
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • 20 Octubre 1898
    ... ...           Appeal ... from Linn District Court.--HON. WILLIAM G. THOMPSON, Judge ...          THE ... defendant, having been accused of the crime of rape, and ... convicted of an assault with intent to commit ... sufficient to sustain the charge of rape. See cases above ... cited, and also State v. Hargrave, 65 N.C. 466; ... People v. Crowley, 102 N.Y. 234 (6 N.E. 384); ... Rodgers v. State, 30 Tex. Ct. App. 510 (17 S.W ... 1077); Reg. v. Allen, 9 Car. & P. 31. The evidence ... ...
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