Court Opinion

ID: 9740893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:44:15.542869+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:20.914931
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Maxweee, dissenting: I am constrained to dissent from the majority opinion of the court. It appears evident from a reading of the section of the statute involved that it is highly penal in nature and that the rule announced by this court in People v. Byrnes, 405 Ill. 103, at page 107, should apply. We held in the Byrnes case that a statute which authorizes the imposition of a more severe punishment is highly penal and should not be applied to cases which do not, by the strictest construction, come under its provisions. The last paragraph of the statutory section in question, in defining a subsequent offense, provides that the violator shall have been previously convicted of a felony under any law of the United States of America, or of any State or territory or the District of Columbia relating to narcotic drugs. The majority opinion seems to hold that the term “any state” means any State other than the State of Illinois. This conclusion can only be reached by implication and not by strict construction. If the legislature had such an intent, then it became incumbent upon it to express that intent clearly and unmistakably. This it failed to do, and it is therefore just as reasonable to assume and to imply that the legislature in referring to “any state” meant all forty-eight in the union, including Illinois. By placing the latter construction upon the statute we are then able to support the validity of this statute against constitutional attack. If the majority opinion is fully extended, the effect of this holding will be to declare this statute discriminatory. A violator of the narcotic laws of another State must clearly have been convicted of a felony in that State before he can be punished under the aggravated penalty clause in this State for a subsequent violation within our boundaries. However, this would not be true for a person who committed two narcotic law misdemeanor violations in this State. I am unable to see any justification in such a classification and if it can be placed upon the basis only of geographical lines the apparent moral aim and purpose of our statute is of little force. I fear that the majority opinion would place a construction upon the statute that would be in contravention of the equal-protection clause of section 1 of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States. The judgment of the lower court should have been reversed and remanded for the imposition of the lesser penalty as provided for in the statute involved.