Case ID: ill-app_201/html/0072-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Thompson", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Jack Colberg, Plaintiff in Error.
    (Not to be reported in full.)
    Error to the County Court of Vermilion county; the Hon. Lawrence T. Allen, Judge, presiding. Heard in this court at the April term, 1915.
    Reversed and remanded.
    Opinion filed October 13, 1915.
    Statement of the Case.
    Information by the People of the State of Illinois, plaintiff, against Jack Colberg, defendant, for illegal sale of liquor to a minor. To review a judgment entered on a verdict of guilty, the defendant prosecutes a writ of error. The court on its own initiative instructed the jury that: “If you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant * * * sold intoxicating liquor to -Virgil Chapman, a minor, * * * it is your duty to return a verdict of guilty; unless you further believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that said minor had a written order of a parent, guardian or family physician of such minor, and * * * the burden of proving such written order is upon the defendant. ’ ’
    Abstract of the Decision.
    1. Intoxicating liquors, § 161
      
      —when alternative judgment sentencing defendant convicted of unlawfully selling liquor to minor erroneous. An alternative judgment sentencing a defendant, convicted of unlawfully selling liquor to a minor, to pay a fine of fifty dollars and costs, and, in default of such payment, to be confined in jail for a period of thirty days, held not authorized under the statute, J. & A. ¶ 4605, or the Criminal Code, secs. 452, 168b (J. & A. ¶¶ 4152, 3795).
    2. Intoxicating liquors, § 158*—when instruction on amount of proof to avoid conviction erroneous. In a prosecution for illegal sale of liquor to a minor, an instruction requiring the defendant, in order to avoid a conviction, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the minor had a proper written order therefor, held reversible error.
    Charles Troup, for plaintiff in error.
    John H. Lewman, for defendant in error; David Allison, of counsel.
    
      
      See Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number.
    
   Mr. Justice Thompson

delivered the opinion of the court.