Williams v. People of State

• Decision Date: 18 January 1882
• Parties: MOSE WILLIAMS et al.v.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

101 Ill. 382

1882 WL 10170 (Ill.)

MOSE WILLIAMS et al.

v.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed at Mt. Vernon Jan. 18, 1882.

WRIT OF ERROR to the Circuit Court of Randolph county; the Hon. AMOS WATTS, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. GORDON & HOOD, for the plaintiffs in error:

Confessions made through hope or fear, induced by words or acts of the party having the prisoner in custody (out of court), are not admissible. 1 Arch. Crim. Prac. and Pl. side page 127; 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, secs. 219, 220; 1 Bouvier's Dic. 4 Confession; Miller v. The People, 39 Ill. 457; Gates v. The People, 14 Id. 433; Brown v. The People, 91 Id. 506; Hosten v. The People, 51 Id. 239. Confessions should be received with caution. 1 Arch. Crim. Prac. and Pl. 125, note 1; 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, sec. 214; 1 Bouvier's Dic. 3 Definition of Confession.

In the United States, the prisoner's confession, when the corpus delicti is not otherwise proved, is held insufficient for a conviction. May v. The People, 92 Ill. 343, and cases there cited; 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, sec. 217; 4 Blackstone's Commentaries, side page 359; Bergen v. The People, 17 Ill. 426.

Mr. JUSTICE MULKEY delivered the opinion of the Court:

Mose Williams and Frank Lewis were tried and found guilty at the March term, 1881, of the Randolph circuit court, before the court and a jury, upon a charge of having knowingly and feloniously received, for their own gain, certain bank bills and gold coin, well knowing the same to have been stolen, and were duly sentenced to the penitentiary, in pursuance of the verdict of the jury, for a period of eighteen months,--to reverse which conviction this writ of error is prosecuted.

A reversal is urged mainly on two grounds: First, it is urged that the conviction is not warranted by the evidence; second, that the court erred both in the giving and refusing of instructions, to the prejudice of the accused.

George Weaver testified, “that on the morning of the 11th of March he saw the defendants coming up over the barges from the boat to where he was standing, and that soon after that he again saw them standing on the levee, and went up to them and took hold of them, and told them he would have to take them on the hill, and that they broke loose from him and ran off.” This witness further states that he did not tell them he was arresting them, or what he was going to take them on the hill for.

John W. Ragsdale, marshal of the city of Chester, testifies, that having gone in pursuit of the defendants, he found them asleep in a straw-pile near the road leading to Stone's landing; that on waking them up he asked them if they did not get off the boat at Chester, and they said they did. About this time William Reno, who was also in search of the accused, came up, and in his presence witness asked the accused how much money they had, and they said they had only a dollar. Witness then gave his revolver to Reno, and told him to guard them while he searched them. The witness says: “I found on Mose Williams $10, and on Frank Lewis $15, and some small change, amounting, I think, to twenty-five cents. I asked them where they got the money, and they said they had been paid off. I told them their wages would not have amounted to that, and they said they had won it. I then asked them if it was not the proceeds of a robbery on the boat, and they said it was, and that it was given them by a white man, and he told them to go along and keep their mouths shut. They admitted they had been arrested that morning in Chester. I asked them if they did not know a robbery had been committed on the boat ‘Golden Dust,’ and they said they had heard some of the ‘grays' squealing about being robbed on the boat. I do not think Lewis said anything. They said a white man gave it to them. They saw him walking around on the deck, and they asked him what he was doing, and he told them to go along, and they went to the front of the boat, and he followed them and gave them the money, and told them to keep their mouths shut. While I was searching them, and during the conversation, Reno was sitting near by guarding them, with two revolvers in his hands. They told me to keep the money and let them go, for they did not want to go to the penitentiary. * * * I had not told them I had arrested them. Had no warrant. Williams done the talking. Lewis said nothing at all.”

Reno's testimony is substantially the same as Ragsdale's. There are some slight discrepancies between them in repeating the statements of the accused, but we do not regard this as materially affecting the testimony of either. The foregoing is all the evidence in the case.

It must be conceded that the conduct of the accused is...