Court Opinion

ID: 9745448
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:57:47.198056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:01.073571
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice House delivered the opinion of the court: A jury in the criminal court of Cook County found Robert Lueck guilty of the crimes of conspiring to commit larceny and conspiring to receive stolen property and fixed his sentence at imprisonment in the county jail for a term of one year. Fred Dittmer, Jr. and DeKoven S. Crowley, co-defendants and alleged co-conspirators with Lueck, pleaded guilty. Lueck brings this writ of error to review his conviction. Defendant asserts, among other things, that he was denied due process of law when the prosecution knowingly used perjured testimony. Codefendant Dittmer testified that the State’s Attorney had not offered him any inducement for testifying as a witness. The record shows however that when Dittmer pleaded guilty, the prosecutor, in the presence of Dittmer, told the court: “* * * the State has agreed and stated and made representations to these two defendants, .through their counsel,' that in the event that these two defendants, Crowley and Dittmer, do testify on behalf of the State in the matter involving the defendant, Robert Lueck, * * * that the State will recommend that both of these defendants be placed on probation for a term of two years. Therefore, I ask your honor to delay the sentencing of these two defendants until such time as we dispose of the case involving the defendant Lueck.” In Napue v. People, 360 U.S. 264, 3 L. ed. 2d 1217, 79 S. Ct. 1173, a principal witness for the People testified that he had received no promise of consideration in return for his testimony. The prosecution had in fact promised him consideration, but it did nothing to correct the false testimony. The Supreme Court held that the failure of the prosecutor to correct the testimony of the witness, which he knew to be false, denied Napue due process of law in violation of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States. While the People have attempted to draw several distinctions between the Napue case and this one, they are without a difference. The testimony of Dittmer could have effected the result of the trial. We are of the opinon, therefore, that the fourteenth amendment of the Federal constitution and section 2 of article II of our constitution require that this conviction be set aside. The judgment of the criminal court of Cook County is accordingly reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial. Reversed and remanded.