Rafferty v. People

Citations

• 72 Ill. 37

Syllabus

<p>1. Change oe venue—matter of right, in a capital case. An application for a change of venue by one indicted for murder, is not addressed to the discretion of the court, but, upon a proper application being made, the prisoner is entitled to it as a matter of right.</p> <p>2. Criminal law—hilling an officer when mahing illegal arrest, not murder, hut manslaughter, unless there he previous or express malice. If a public officer be resisted and killed by a person whom he is attempting to illegally arrest without color of authority of law, the killing will be manslaughter 011I3-, unless the evidence shows previous or express malice.</p> <p>3. Same—warrant, when void. Where a justice of the peace signs a number of blank warrants, and, in his absence, a police sergeant fills out one of them and inserts the name of a person, as a defendant, such warrant is void, and will not afford even color of justification for the arrest of such person.</p> <p>4. If an officer be resisted and killed by one whom he is illegally-attempting to arrest, and it appears that the party who does the killing was actuated by previous or express malice in so doing, such killing is murder, notwithstanding the illegality of the attempted arrest.</p> <p>5. Same—new trials in criminal cases—when granted. If, when the evidence is all carefully considered and weighed, in a criminal case, it ap. pears that it is wholh- wanting in respect to some necessary element of the crime, or if there is a conflict of evidence, and there is such a clear preponderance against the verdict as to suspend the judicial mind in serious doubt as to the guilt of the accused, then, in either case, a new trial should he granted.</p> <p>6. Where a conviction rests solely upon the evidence of an accomplice, if the jury choose to believe him, the court could not reverse, where that fact was the only one affecting his credibility, although it might believe that faith should not be reposed in such a witness. But, where a verdict re