Yoe v. People

Citations

• 49 Ill. 410

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence—ire criminal cases—of the right to show the character of a witness—in a capital case. Where, upon the trial of a capital case, a witness, who had acted as a.detective, was asked the question by the prisoner’s counsel, upon cross-examination, “ What is the character of your associates, in your business as a detective ?” Held, that the inquiry was objectionable, as tending to degenerate into investigations wholly foreign to the matters in question.</p> <p>2. Same—medical boohs—extracts read therefrom—not evidence. And in such case, where the State’s attorney, in his argument to the jury, read from medical books not in evidence, or proved to be authority upon the subject, it was the duty of the court to instruct the jury that such books were not evidence, but theories simply, of medical men.</p> <p>3. Same—testimony given in another case—and in another State—inadmissible. It was error foh the court to permit to be used in evidence against the prisoner the testimony of a professor of chemistry, given in another case and in another State, and reported in the Criminal Reports, no opportunity having been had either to cross-examine such witness or to meet his testimony by other evidence.</p> <p>4. Trial—in criminal cases—improper conduct of counsel in address to the jury—duty of court. And where, in a capital case, counsel, in his argument to the jury, made a statement, against objection, that he had a witness by whom he could have proved a certain declaration made by the prisoner, stating it, but that she was sick, such declaration being a serious admission against him: Held, that such conduct was improper, and that the court should have excluded the statement from the jury.</p> <p>6. Criminal law—accessory equally guilty—distinction between accessories before the fact and principals abolished—not after the fact. Under our statute, the distinction between accessories before the fact and principals, is abolished, but this is not true as to accessories after