Court Opinion

ID: 9884923
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:24:45.085249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:42.547849
License: Public Domain

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, dissenting: I do not agree that defendant was entitled to a new trial as ordered by the circuit court, or to the reversal of her conviction and discharge as ordered by this court. Defendant was charged with the theft of property having a value exceeding $150. The uncontradicted testimony was that the value of the stolen trousers was $250. The latter amount had been inserted in the form of verdict before that form was handed to the jurors. Its insertion, my colleagues say, denied defendant her constitutional right to a jury trial. Our more recent decisions, in my opinion, require a contrary result, wholly apart from the question of waiver upon which the appellate court relied in the direct appeal. In People v. Harden (1969), 42 Ill.2d 301, the defendant urged that a verdict stating, “We, the Jury, find the defendant, Palas tine [íz'c] Harden, guilty.” was an insufficient finding of value over $150 necessary to support a penitentiary sentence. The trial court had there instructed the jury as to the elements of proof, including value, necessary to a guilty verdict, and this court held the verdict sufficient despite the total absence of a finding that value of the property stolen was more than $150. In People v. Tassone (1968), 41 Ill.2d 7, a felony conviction in a bench trial for theft of a truck was upheld even though no proof of value of the truck was offered. This court there held judicial notice would be taken of the fact that the value of the tractor and trailer was more than $150. And in People v. Rogers (1959), 16 Ill.2d 175, this court affirmed a conviction for grand larceny, despite the trial court’s refusal of an instruction on petit larceny, holding there was no error in refusing the instruction because there was no conflict in the evidence as to value. In my judgment the unmistakable tenor of these more recent cases requires affirmance here. While the practice of inserting the amounts in forms of verdicts prior to submitting them to the jury is not to be recommended, the fact that it was done here, where the testimony as to the value is undisputed, could not, as I view it, have prejudiced defendant. I would reverse the trial court judgment and deny the petition.