Court Opinion

ID: 9516332
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:40:38.490943+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:33:42.288493
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE STOUDER dissenting: I do not agree with the majority of the court. In my view trial errors occurred which were prejudicial and require that defendant be granted a new trial. The first issue which I would like to discuss is that relating to the request of the jury to have testimony reread and the trial judge’s reply, “No. It is not permissible to read or play back testimony.” A substantially similar problem arose in the recent case of People v. Queen, 8 Ill.App.3d 858, 290 N.E.2d 631 (petition for leave to appeal granted) and in my dissent in the Queen case I discussed at some length many aspects of this problem which are equally applicable to the case at bar. It would serve no useful purpose in repeating those observations so recently made and accordingly my dissenting opinion in that case may be referred to for a more complete discussion of my views on this subject. So far as this case is concerned, the majority has rejected both the reasoning of the American Bar Association Standards on the subject as well as the comments of the drafters thereof, because the same have not been adopted in our State. It is true that the Standards have not been adopted in Illinois, but this is not a sufficient reason for rejecting the arguments and reasons if otherwise applicable by way of analogy. Likewise, decisions from other jurisdictions may be considered illustrative and instructive particularly in the absence of contrary decisions in our own jurisdiction. Undoubtedly the decision of the trial court to permit rereading of testimony in order to assist the jury in its deliberations is a matter of discretion. Yet, if the trial court announces as it did in this case, that it is impermissible to grant the request of the jury, it can hardly be said that any discretion is being exercised. At a very minimum there can be an exercise of discretion only if the court recognizes that it has such a discretion. The majority of the court in approving the action of the trial court is in effect saying that it is not permissible to reread testimony. No authority from this State has been cited in support of such a rule and I am not aware of any decision from any other jurisdiction announcing a similar rule. It seems to me that the general rule which should be applicable to a case of this kind is that the jury’s request for assistance should be granted unless unreasonable. Unless it can be inferred from the jury’s request, actions, or from inquiries attempting to discover the problem, that the request is unreasonable, the trial court’s decision is erroneous. Because of the state of the record and the failure of the trial court to even ascertain what the jury desired, the question of prejudice necessarily involves a certain amount of speculation. This should not be the case, but, in any event, the action of the jury would seem to demonstrate that the failure of the judge to assist the jury could have been prejudicial. The juiy found defendant guilty of attempted murder but was unable to reach a verdict on the charge of armed robbery. It was the State’s theory that the police officer was shot attempting to apprehend the defendant fleeing from the scene of an armed robbery. The testimony regarding the defendant’s identity as one of the robbers was not very abundant or definite. Yet the robbeiy furnished a substantial link in the conduct upon which the charge of attempted murder was based. Defendant, Pulley, was one of two persons charged with the armed robbery of Lewis at his store. The other person charged was Fritz Autman who was tried separately and convicted of robbery. In reviewing Autman’s conviction, People v. Autman, post, p. 300, a different jury also requested that testimony be reread which was also denied by the trial judge. That the jury may have been confused or sufficiently uncertain to request rereading of testimony in each case may be coincidental but it also may be inferred that the nature of the evidence may have produced the need for assistance. Furthermore, the problems which may have motivated tire jury to seek assistance may well have related to the instructions and to the deficiencies or errors therein, as brought to the attention of this court in the appellant’s brief. I believe reversible error was committed when the trial judge ruled that he could not grant the request of the jury and that such ruling must be deemed prejudicial in the absence of any showing that the request by the jury was unreasonable. Appellant also urged that it was reversible error for the judge to communicate with the jury outside the presence of the defendant, relying on People v. Harmon, 104 Ill.App.2d 294, 244 N.E.2d 358. I do not think that the rule of Harmon can be disposed of by simply saying that the record in this case fails to disclose whether defendant’s attorney was or was not present during the interchange between judge and jury. Harmon seems clear that defendant as well as his attorney have the right to be present. After reviewing cases from other jurisdictions there seems to be lack of unanimity in the resolution of this issue. (See, Comments to Tentative Draft of American Bar Association Standards for Criminal Justice, Trial by Jury, Page 136.) It would seem to be the better rule that all communications between judge and jury, once the case has been submitted to the jury for its consideration, should take place in open court in the presence of the jury, counsel and the defendant. The majority opinion cites People v. Gersbacher, 44 Ill.2d 321, 255 N.E.2d 429, as authority for the proposition that the offense of attempt murder should include the elements of murder but that the failure to do so did not, in Gersbacher or in this case, constitute prejudicial error. A comparison of the facts in Gersbacher and those in the instant case does, I believe, require a different result. In Gersbacher, the victim of a rape was also shot three times and nearly strangled to death. The only issue was whether the defendant charged with the offense of attempt murder was the perpetrator thereof, and the court, concluding there was no issue concerning the nature of the offense itself, affirmed defendant’s conviction. However, in the case at bar the only issue regarding the attempt murder is the issue of whether such an offense occurred. Defendant admitted firing his gun but claimed he did so in an effort to prevent the police officer from hassling him. Thus, there was some factual basis for disputing whether murder was attempted depending to some extent on the elements of murder. Likewise, the evidence raised issues of self-defense or voluntary manslaughter. In this connection, in view of the defendant’s own testimony, it is difficult to understand why no instructions on self-defense were tendered by the defense. Without such instructions and in the presence of the abbreviated attempt murder instructions, the jury in effect had no instructions applicable to the facts which it had heard, and under such circumstances could well have concluded that under the instructions as given defendant’s admission that he had fired the gun constituted, for all practical purposes, a judicial confession of guilt. In summary, I believe the trial court erred in failing and refusing to assist the jury when it requested further information, that the court erred in instructing the jury and that such errors, whether considered alone or in conjunction with one another, were prejudicial depriving defendant of a fair trial.