Court Opinion

ID: 9519205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:11:21.604942+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:06.355248
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree with the results and reasoning of the majority opinion in all respects except as to the conviction for failure to have a valid firearm owner’s identification card. The only evidence of that offense is that an employee concerned with the keeping of records of the issuance of firearm owner’s identification cards testified that cards had been issued to some 38 people who had the name of Charles King and that the State’s Attorney had told him the birthday of the defendant Charles King and that none of the 38 Charles Kings listed in his records had that birthday, leading to the conclusion that a card had not been issued to the defendant and that, therefore, he was guilty. A proper objection was not made to this testimony which was, and is, classic hearsay. Thus we have the pure and simple question of the probative value of unobjected-to hearsay testimony. The failure to object renders the testimony admissible, but not very weighty. In People v. McCoy (1968), 101 Ill. App. 2d 69, 242 N.E.2d 4, we had another case wherein the sole evidence of guilt was unobjected-to hearsay. The majority affirmed the conviction. The supreme court granted leave to appeal and reversed (People v. McCoy (1970), 44 Ill. 2d 458, 256 N.E.2d 449), and while the opinion reversing did not specifically hold that unobjected-to hearsay evidence standing alone was insufficient to convict, the court did say that the evidence there found was not sufficient to convict. The majority and dissenting opinion of this court in McCoy and the majority and dissenting opinion of the supreme court probably say all that can be meaningfully said upon this issue. For the reasons expressed in my dissent in McCoy, I dissent here to the conviction based upon unobjected-to hearsy.