Court Opinion

ID: 9738630
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:59:11.103987+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:07.531650
License: Public Domain

DUNN, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent.
The victim was subjected to a savage and brutal attack by two men. He was repeatedly struck, kicked and thrown onto a cement floor. This continued over a period of thirty minutes, and at one point, in apprehension of even greater injury, the victim was forced to lick a urinal with his tongue. This is not simple assault.
There was sufficient evidence upon which the jury could have determined that an aggravated assault had occurred. In People v. Carmack, 50 Ill.App.3d 983, 8 Ill.Dec. 941, 366 N.E.2d 103 (1977), the court stated that “great bodily injury” is incapable of precise definition, but it is injury of a more serious character than ordinary assault and battery. It is impossible for me to consider this incident an ordinary assault and battery. Most ordinary assaults and batteries consist of a relatively brief encounter, certainly less than one minute, in which the victim receives a blow or two. The instant victim was brutally beaten and kicked by two men continually over a period of thirty minutes.
The period of time over which this incident occurred, the repeated blows and kicks suffered, and the extent of bruises and contusions over a great area of the body were sufficient to have the jury consider the question of great bodily injury. The statute does not require broken bones, concussion, or the maiming of the victim’s body. This section of the statute was enacted to fulfill a void between simple assault and our former maiming statutes. Permanent injury is not necessarily required for there to be serious injury. People v. Smith, 6 Ill.App.3d 259, 285 N.E.2d 460 (1972). An extended stay in the hospital is similarly not required. Commonwealth v. Alexander, 237 Pa.Super. 111, 346 A.2d 319 (1975).
This was a jury question. In order for the majority to find an absence of serious bodily injury, it is required that there be no evidence upon which the verdict could be sustained. It is not our function to weigh the evidence. State v. Minkel, 89 S.D. 144, 230 N.W.2d 233 (1975). The jury verdict should be sustained.