Boone v. People

Citations

• 148 Ill. 440
• 36 N.E. 99
• 1894 Ill. LEXIS 1506

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal law—grand jury—accused as a witness. The provisions of section 426 of the Criminal Code, and the positive prohibition of section 10 of article 2 of the constitution, alike preclude the right of the grand jury, or any court, to call upon the defendant, and in the first place to make him a witness, and require him to give evidence against himself.</p> <p>2. Where a person in custody on a charge of murder is taken from the jail before the grand jury, and sworn, and examined as to the very matters on which he is indicted, the indictment should be quashed on motion of defendant, without any inquiry whether his testimony so obtained influenced the finding of the indictment or not, when it does not appear that the grand jury examined any other witnesses as to his complicity in the crime for which he is indicted.</p> <p>3. This court does not hold, where one is before the grand jury as a witness, and at that time is not charged with crime, and may incidentally be interrogated about a matter to which, he makes answer, and an indictment is afterward found against him, that this would require the indictment to be quashed; nor does it hold that every case where one is before the grand jury as a witness, and interrogated about a matter for which he may afterward be indicted, would be, of itself, sufficient cause to quash the indictment.</p> <p>4. Same—grand jury a part of the court—witness testifying before, testifies in open court. The grand jury constitute a part of the court, and their official acts in finding true bills or ignoring bills are borne into the records of the court, and witnesses sworn before that body are sworn in open court, though not necessarily in the' presence of the judge.</p> <p>5. Same—instruction as to defendant being an accessory. On the trial of one on a charge of murder, with another, the court, on behalf of the People, instructed the jury, that if they believed, from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant shot and