Zimm v. People

Citations

• 111 Ill. 49
• 1884 Ill. LEXIS 1241

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence — declarations of a third person in hearing of defendant. On the trial of a policeman for an assault and battery, it appeared that the defendant had arrested a boy, without warrant, for jumping upon a passing freight train of cars, and that the boy’s brother having heard of the arrest, with a third person came up at a rapid gait to the officer, when an altercation between the three ensued, the third person acting in concert with the older brother, during which the officer struck the latter with a “billy,” which was the battery complained of. A witness who was present at the time of the difficulty, was asked, “What, if anything, did such other person say to the older brother in the presence and hearing of the officer, at that time?” which the court refused to allow the witness to answer: Held, that the court erred in not allowing the witness to answer the question.</p> <p>2. Ebbor wide not always bevebse — as to excluding evidence, and in instructions. A refusal to allow a witness present at an assault and battery, to testify what a person acting in concert with the party assaulted said to the latter in the hearing of the defendant before the assault, although an error, is no ground for reversing a judgment of conviction, when it appears that the defendant was allowed to testify fully as to what was said and done by such person, and that his statements could not have changed the result. Nor is error in instructions a ground of reversal, if it appears that the result of the trial would have been the same if the instructions had been free from error.</p>