REPORT OF COMMITTEE. condemned to death shall designate the time when the execution shall take place and the penitentiary where it takes place, and the execution shall be by the sheriff of the county where said penitentiary is situated, or by the warden of said penitentiary, or under his immediate supervision and control. SEC. 62. Any person who wilfully and unlawfully interferes with any citizen in the exercise of the elective franchise or who interferes with him by force or violence in obtaining access to any polling booth or from casting his ballot at any voting place at which he is by law entitled to vote, or who changes any ballot after the same has been cast and deposited in any ballot box, or changes any marks which have been made upon the same by any voter showing the person that he voted for, or who shall unlawfully and maliciously break or destroy any ballot box, or who shall wilfully make any false return of the result of any election, or who shall wilfully mutilate, tear, deface or obliterate any certificate or return of any election or any statement thereof which is required to be made by any judge or judges of any election, or who wilfully interferes with any messenger or person duly authorized to carry any report, certificate or certified copy of any statement relating to the result of any election, from carrying or delivering the same at the place appointed by law for making such a return, statement, report or certificate above mentioned, or who shall take away from such messenger any such statement, report, certificate or certified copy with intent to prevent its delivery, or who wilfully does any other act to prevent or interfere with any person in the discharge of his lawful rights or duties either as a citizen or as an officer under and by virtue of the election laws of this State, shall upon conviction be punished in the penitentiary for a period not exceeding five years, and shall pay all costs and expenses attending his trial and conviction. SEC. 63. No attorney at law shall be permitted to be a surety on any bond or recognizance in any criminal action, prosecution or proceeding in which he shall be interested in any way as attorney. SEC. 64. A criminal information may be filed by the State's Attorney in any court of record having jurisdiction of criminal cases against any person accused of crime which is not a felony, and upon the filing of the same he shall be tried in the same manner as if indicted by the grand jury and punished accordingly. SEC. 65. In all criminal cases the State shall have a lien upon all the property of the defendant, both real, personal and mixed, from the time of his arrest for all costs and expenses attending his ELLIOTT ANTHONY. arrest, maintenance, support, prosecution, conviction and transportation to the penitentiary, and it shall be the duty of the clerk of the court and the sheriff of the county to use all due diligence in endeavoring to collect the same by any process known to the law, whether by a fee bill or execution, and none of his property shall be exempt from execution or from levy and sale under and by virtue of an execution or of a fee bill for such costs and expenses. SEC. 66. No person shall be discharged by any court, either upon a writ of habeas corpus, or upon motion, or in any other way, by reason of any defect of any kind in any warrant or order of commitment or mittimus. If the person is in custody by virtue of warrant or any commitment or order of commitment or mittimus, and the commitment or order of commitment or mittimus refers to any judgment which has been pronounced upon the person, then the judgment shall be considered as the essential thing, and not the mittimus or order of commitment, which is but a memoranda of the judgment, and it shall be the duty of the court to enforce said judgment, whatever it may be, until the same is reversed or set aside by some direct proceeding, and the same shall not be set aside or overruled in any collateral proceeding whatever, unless the said judgment is absolutely void. SEC. 67. A motion for a new trial is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court, and is not reviewable, unless it appears that it has been abused to the prejudice of the defendant. Any irregularity or improper conduct on the part of the jurors, furnishes no ground for setting aside the verdict, unless it shows that the defendant is prejudiced thereby. SEC. 68. All criminal cases must be taken to the Supreme Court by appeal and on a bill of exceptions, and not by a writ of error. SEC. 69. The names of the parties shall not, on appeal, be reversed, but the title to the case shall be as in the court below, but the party taking the appeal shall be designated as appellant and the party opposite as appellee. SEC. 70. A bill of exceptions need not contain all of the evidence in the case, but should only present the rulings of the court upon some matter of law, as upon the admission or exclusion of evidence and should contain only so much of the testimony or such a statement of the proofs made or offered as may be necessary to explain the bearings of the rulings upon the issues involved. [7 Wall, 136; 105 U. S., 118.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE. SEC. 71. That in order to place the people of this State on an equality with individuals in all actions, suits, prosecutions and proceedings which are or may be carried on in their name, appeals shall be allowed and may be taken by them to the Supreme or Appellate Court to the same extent as is now done by individuals. This right shall be allowed and may be exercised, especially in all cases where the court below quashes any indictment or any count in any indictment or sets aside any judgment or verdict for any error in the giving or refusing of instructions or otherwise or where the court discharges any person on a writ of habeas corpus who is held under any process, mittimus, or commitment, or is imprisoned under and by virtue of any judgment at law or decree of court and in all other cases where the public interests demand a final settlement of any controversy or final disposition of any case which may be carried on or prosecuted in the name of the same. Whenever an appeal is taken on behalf of the State, no bond or bonds shall be required. SEC. 72. All criminal cases shall be decided upon their merits, and they shall never be reversed on any technicality whatever, or on the ground that said court differed with the trial judge in the conclusion that he arrived at, in regard to the competency of any juror to try the case when the judges of said Supreme Court were not present, when the jury was examined and impaneled, and did not see the jurors, and the only means that said court has in arriving at an opinion, is by reading over an abstract of the examination of the jurors long after the trial is ended. SEC. 73. Nothing contained in any provision of this act applies to a crime committed at any time before the day when this act takes effect. Such crimes must be punished according to the provisions of law existing when it is committed, in the same manner as if this act has not been passed; and the provisions of law for the infliction of the penalty of death upon convicted criminals, in existence on the day prior to the passage of this act are continued in existence and applicable to all crimes punishable by death, which have been or may be committed before the time when this act takes effect. A crime punishable by death committed after the beginning of the day when this act takes effect, must be punished according to the provisions of this act and not otherwise. JAMES B. BRADWELL. REPORT OF NECROLOGIST. JAMES B. BRADWELL. To the President and Members of the Illinois State Bar Association: Under the constitution and by-laws of the association it is made the duty of the necrologist to provide for preservation among the archives of the association, suitable written or printed memorials of the lives and character of the deceased members of the bar of this State, and make report thereof to each annual meeting of the association. In pursuance of this duty your necrologist respectfully reports for the year 1895 the deaths of the following members of the Illinois bar: SETH T. SAWYER, probably the oldest lawyer in Southern Illinois, died February 9, 1895, at his home in Alton. He was eightysix years old, and had been a practitioner for sixty-three years, having been admitted to the Illinois bar, October 5, 1832. He was not a great orator, but in his prime an excellent office lawyer. He was known to the pioneers throughout the State. In his death, one of the legal landmarks of Southern Illinois has been removed. See 6 Obituary Memoranda, 2. ISRAEL N. STILES.-General Israel N. Stiles died January 17, 1895, at his home in Chicago. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1855. He afterward served as prosecuting attorney and was sent to the Indiana legislature. He enlisted in the civil war as a private, was captured at Malvern Hill, confined in Libby Prison for six weeks and then exchanged. He was afterward commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel and finally, for bravery on the field, made a brigadiergeneral. General Stiles came to Chicago after the war and practiced law alone until 1867, when he formed a partnership with Judge McAllister. Two years later he was elected city attorney in Chicago; was later in partnership with Judge Tuley and John Lewis the firm remain REPORT OF NECROLOGIST. ing Stiles & Lewis after Judge Tuley was elected to the bench. He was a popular orator, an excellent trial lawyer, and, as an adversary, he was able to cope with the most talented members of the bar. He was a firm agnostic, and despite his affliction, members of his family say he held to the tenets of his belief to the last. He was blind for a number of years before his death, but he bore his affliction with wonderful fortitude. For sketch of General Stiles, see 6 Obituary Memoranda, 3. MASON BRAYMAN was a lawyer, soldier, statesman and editor. He died at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, February 27, 1895. For several years he had ceased to be a resident of Illinois. He was admitted to the Illinois bar March 8, 1842. He was for a number of years editor of the State Journal, at Springfield; was the reviser of the Statutes of 1845; a charter member of the Chicago Historical Society; general solicitor of the Illinois Central Railroad company in 1852; at one time Governor of Idahó; a general in the field very near to General Grant, possessing his confidence to an unlimited extent. General Brayman was invited to prepare a paper for the last annual meeting of this Association, but his health failed, and under date of January 21, 1895, he wrote to Judge Anthony, "It is with deep regret and many apologies that I have now to advise you that I can not forward my promised address to be read in my behalf.” * * * "I will proceed, as I am able, to complete the paper to be read at your next meeting." The "next meeting" has come, but General Brayman has passed over the river and the paper remains unfinished. For matters relating to General Brayman, see 6 Obituary Memoranda, 4 and 5. JOHN W. CARY, general counsel of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway company, died March 29, 1895, at Chicago. He had been for thirty-six years the chief legal adviser of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway company. He stood high in the legal profession, and was regarded by all as one of the best railroad lawyers in the country. He was born in Vermont in 1817. He graduated at Union College in 1842, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of that State in 1844. He removed to Wisconsin in 1850. He resided in Milwaukee until 1890, when he removed to Illinois. He was a member of the Senate of Wisconsin in 1853 and 1854, and again in the year 1872. He was a member of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, on Government and Law Reform. For sketch of Mr. Cary, see 6 Obituary Memoranda, 7. |