Watt v. People

Citations

• 126 Ill. 9
• 1 L.R.A. 403
• 18 N.E. 340
• 1888 Ill. LEXIS 865

Syllabus

<p>1. Cbiminal law—of the venue—place of trial. Whenever the locus in quo of an offense can be precisely identified and shown, under section 4, division 10,-of the Criminal Code, the accused must be indicted and tried in the county in which the offense was committed. But when it can not be shown with certainty in which of two counties a crime has been committed, as, when it was committed upon a railway train while in motion, the accused may be tried and convicted in either of the two counties.</p> <p>2. While at common law, and under the rule established by both our former constitutions, criminal offenses were regarded as strictly local, and subject to prosecution only in the counties in which they were committed, the present constitution vests in the General Assembly the power to change that rule to such extent as that body may see proper. The General Assembly may now determine, by law, when offenses are to be deemed to be local, and when and within what limitations they are to be treated as transitory.</p> <p>3. Under the provision of the present constitution that “in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to * * * a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed,” a prosecution may now be had in the county in which the offense is alleged in the indictment to have been committed.</p> <p>4. Where the crime charged has been committed under such circumstances as to render it doubtful in which of two counties it took place, the prosecution may be properly instituted in either one of such counties, and the indictment may properly allege its commission in either county. In such case, proof of the commission of the offense in one or the other of those counties, but under circumstances which make it doubtful or difficult to determine in which of them, is sufficient proof of the allegation that it was committed in the county named.</p> <p>5. Same—reasonable doubt—whether properly