Case Title: People v. Davis

Citation: 357 N.E.2d 792, 65 Ill. 2d 157

Docket Number: 

State: illinois

Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Date: 1976-11-15T00:00:00Z

Document:
65 Ill. 2d 157 (1976)
357 N.E.2d 792
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellant,
v.
WILLIE DAVIS, Appellee.
No. 48052.

Supreme Court of Illinois.
Opinion filed November 15, 1976.
*158 William J. Scott, Attorney General, of Springfield, and Bernard Carey, State's Attorney, of Chicago (James B. Zagel and Jayne A. Carr, Assistant Attorneys General, of Chicago, and Laurence J. Bolon and Linda Ann Miller, Assistant State's Attorneys, and Michael W. Ward (law student), of counsel), for the People.
Paul Bradley and James Geis, Office of State Appellate Defender, of Chicago (Brenda E. Richey, Assistant Appellate Defender, of counsel), for appellee.
Appellate court reversed; circuit court affirmed.
*159 MR. JUSTICE UNDERWOOD delivered the opinion of the court:
Defendant, Willie Davis, pleaded guilty in the Cook County circuit court on July 30, 1973, to the theft of an automobile and was released on 4 years' probation. On December 10 a petition to revoke defendant's probation was filed alleging that on September 26 defendant was arrested for, and on September 27 was found guilty of, criminal trespass to a motor vehicle and sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment. A rule to show cause why the probation should not be terminated was issued. At the subsequent hearing on that rule the following colloquy occurred:
The court overruled defendant's objections to the method of proving the September conviction, found defendant to have violated his probation, heard a statement detailing defendant's extensive record of arrests, convictions and sentences and ordered a presentence investigation. The common law record indicates defendant was subsequently sentenced to 1 to 4 years' imprisonment, although no transcript of those proceedings is included in the record before us.
*161 Defendant appealed, the Appellate Court for the First Judicial District reversed, holding the trial court erred in taking judicial notice of the September conviction (32 Ill. App.3d 760), and we allowed the State's petition for leave to appeal.
The single issue presented is the propriety of the trial court's action in taking judicial notice of the September conviction. Traditionally, courts have been cautious in expanding the scope of judicial notice. (9 Wigmore, Evidence, sec. 2583 (3d ed. 1940); McCormick, Evidence, sec. 328 (2d ed. 1972); 1 Jones, Evidence, sec. 2.2 (6th ed. 1972).) In McCormick on Evidence, section 330, at 766 (2d ed. 1972), it is said to be "settled, of course, that the courts, trial and appellate, take notice of their own respective records in the present litigation, both as to matters occurring in the immediate trial, and in previous trials or hearings. The principle seemingly is equally applicable to matters of record in the proceedings in other cases in the same court, and some decisions have recognized this, but many courts still adhere to the needless requirement of formal proof, rather than informal presentation, of recorded proceedings in other suits in the same court." (Emphasis added.) Taking judicial notice of matters of record in other cases in the same court is simply an application of the increasingly recognized principle that matters susceptible of judicial notice include facts "capable of immediate and accurate demonstration by resort to easily accessible sources of indisputable accuracy." McCormick, at 763 (2d ed. 1972); see also 9 Wigmore, Evidence, sec. 2571, at 548 (3d ed. 1940); 1 Jones, Evidence, sec. 2.2, at 32 (6th ed. 1972); Rule 9(2)(d), Uniform Rules of Evidence; 4 Jones, Evidence 372 (6th ed. 1972).
The Federal Rules of Evidence, which became effective July 1, 1975, provide as to judicial notice:
The limitation of judicial notice to "adjudicative facts" is explained in the Advisory Committee's note which accompanied the proposed rules as they were submitted by the Supreme Court to Congress:
Earlier cases in this court would appear to preclude a judge from taking judicial notice of the orders or decrees entered in other cases in the court in which he presides. (People v. McKinlay (1937), 367 Ill. 504, 507; People ex rel. Winkler v. Chicago & Eastern Illinois Ry. Co. (1929), 336 Ill. 506, 510; People ex rel. Zilm v. Carr (1914), 265 Ill. 220, 229; Streeter v. Streeter (1867), 43 Ill. 155, 164.) It has been repeatedly held that proof of prior convictions should be by means of certified copies of the record and identification of the defendant in the prior case as the same person. (People v. Madison (1974), 56 Ill. 2d 476, 488; People v. McCrimmon (1967), 37 Ill. 2d 40, 45.) To the extent that these and similar holdings may be thought to create an inflexible rule requiring formal proof of earlier court records only by authenticated or certified copies of those records and proof of identity, they are incompatible with considerations of judicial economy and efficiency essential to the disposition of present-day caseloads. Nor do such procedures provide any necessary or useful safeguards to the defendants in cases such as this where the fact that the prior conviction had occurred has never been denied.
Our recent opinion in Walsh v. Union Oil Co. (1972), 53 Ill. 2d 295, 299, has made clear that a court may take judicial notice of other proceedings in other courts, at least where those proceedings involved the same parties and are determinative of the cause sub judice. We also note that several of our appellate court judges have recently demonstrated a more flexible approach to this question. (People v. Dye (1974), 23 Ill. App.3d 453, 455-56; People v. Turner (1976), 35 Ill. App.3d 550, 566.) And illustrative of the cases in which the Federal courts, prior to the adoption of Rule 201, had judicially noticed the proceedings in other cases in the same court are Insurance Company of North America v. National Steel Service *165 Center, Inc. (N.D.W. Va. 1975), 391 F. Supp. 512, 518, and Alexander v. Texas Co. (W.D. La. 1958), 165 F. Supp. 53, 58. In our judgment, the extension of the doctrine of judicial notice to include facts which, while not generally known, are readily verifiable from sources of indisputable accuracy is an important aid in the efficient disposition of litigation, and its use, where appropriate, is to be commended.
The State urges that we adopt Federal Rule 201, or at least subdivision (b) thereof, as a rule of evidence in this State, citing the actions of the Supreme Courts of Wisconsin and New Mexico which, following submission of the proposed rules to Congress by the Supreme Court, adopted new rules patterned after Rule 201 (40L Wis. Stat. Ann., sec. 902.01, effective Jan. 1, 1974; N.M. Stat. Ann., sec. 20-4-201, effective July 1, 1973.) We prefer, however, to await the report of our Committee on Evidence, which is considering a new code of evidence for Illinois. It will suffice, for the present, to decide the case before us.
In our opinion the prior conviction of defendant in this case falls squarely within the judicially noticeable category of facts "capable of immediate and accurate demonstration by resort to easily accessible sources of indisputable accuracy." The trial judge was requested to take judicial notice of his action in the earlier case, and documents were submitted sufficient to satisfy him that there was no doubt such action had occurred. Defendant did not deny that he had pleaded guilty and been sentenced on the September charge. The necessities of the orderly and efficient administration of justice, as well as the authorities earlier referred to, dictate that the judge take judicial notice of that conviction even though not proved with the formality to be required were there a denial that the conviction had occurred or that defendant was actually the person convicted.
Accordingly, we hold the circuit court of Cook County did not err in taking judicial notice of the earlier *166 conviction. No other issue having been raised, its judgment is affirmed and that of the appellate court reversed.
Appellate court reversed; circuit court affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, with whom MR. JUSTICE KLUCZYNSKI joins, dissenting:
Mr. Justice Kluczynski and I dissent and would affirm the judgment of the appellate court.
Section 5-6-4(c) of the Unified Code of Corrections (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 38, par. 1005-6-4(c)) provides that in the hearing held on a petition charging violation of the conditions of probation, "[t]he State has the burden of going forward with the evidence and proving the violation by the preponderance of the evidence. The evidence shall be presented in open court with the right of confrontation, cross-examination, and representation by counsel." We have held that "The consequences of a determination that the probation order has been violated are so serious that the appellate courts have surrounded the defendant at a revocation hearing with many of the same due-process safeguards that are accorded to a defendant at a trial to determine his guilt. [Citations.] Since the results of a probation revocation may be a deprivation of liberty and, consequently, as serious as the original determination of guilt, we agree with the holdings of these cases that due process of law requires that a defendant charged with having violated his probation be entitled to a conscientious judicial determination of the charge according to accepted and well recognized procedural methods." People v. Pier, 51 Ill. 2d 96, 99-100; see also People v. Beard, 59 Ill. 2d 220, 224.
Where proof of a defendant's prior conviction has been relevant, this court has consistently required that proof of such conviction be made by an authenticated or certified copy of the record (People v. Wheeler, 5 Ill. 2d 474; *167 People v. Stewart, 23 Ill. 2d 161), and that in addition to the identity of names appearing from the record of the earlier conviction, proof must be made of the identity of the person (People v. Casey, 399 Ill. 374; People v. Stewart, 23 Ill. 2d 161). In Stewart, quoting from Casey, the court said:
The majority, citing from numerous sources, none of which supports its conclusion, holds that these time-honored procedures do not "provide any necessary or useful safeguards to the defendants in cases such as this where the fact that the prior conviction had occurred has never been denied." (65 Ill. 2d  at 164.) The fact of no denial is completely irrelevant; this was not a proceeding where issues were framed by allegations and denials, here "the State has the burden of going forward with the evidence and proving the violation by the preponderance of the evidence" (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 38, par. 1005-6-4(c)). The majority seems to find the requirement that proof of prior convictions be made by record and proof of identity "incompatible with considerations of judicial economy and efficiency essential to the disposition of present-day caseloads." (65 Ill. 2d  at 164.) I am wholly in agreement that litigation should be handled with dispatch, but a defendant incarcerated as the result of a judgment entered in haste and without requirement of proper proof will find little solace in the knowledge that his case was expeditiously processed.
As a practical matter it would have taken several minutes to make proper proof of the prior conviction. The "record" of which the trial court took "judicial notice" is not contained in the record on appeal, but the colloquy *169 between court and counsel (65 Ill.2d at 160) suggests that the entry relied upon is "line 2, sheet 8." In quoting this colloquy the majority found it necessary to twice insert "[sic]", which is indicative of the reliability which may be attributed to the "adjudicative facts" which the majority holds may be judicially noticed.