{
  "id": 5190679,
  "name": "Thomas B. Williams v. The People of the State of Illinois",
  "name_abbreviation": "Williams v. People",
  "decision_date": "1896-11-25",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "344",
  "last_page": "345",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "67 Ill. App. 344"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:00:34.097112+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "Thomas B. Williams v. The People of the State of Illinois."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Presiding Justice Boggs\ndeliveeed the opinion oe THE OOUBT.\nThe court overruled a motion of the plaintiff in error to quash a criminal information against him, the material averments whereof were, that the plaintiff in error, on, etc., at, etc., \u201c did make an indecent exposure of his private person, tending to debauch the public morals, contrary,\u201d etc.\nThe 55th section of the criminal code, upon which it was sought to base the information, is as follows:\n\u201c Whoever is guilty of open lewdness * * * or other notorious act of public indecency tending to debauch the public morals, shall be fined not exceeding $200.\u201d\nThis statute denounces open lewdness and notorious acts of public indecency.\nLewdness is to be deemed \u201c open \u201d only when it is committed in the presence of another person, or in a place open to the public view. 4 Black. Com. 64; 1 Bishop Grim. Law, 947 and 1126; 7 Amer. & Eng. Ency. 534, and 13 Amer. & Eng. Ency. 276.\nThe precedents of indictments prepared by Mr. Wharton contains the allegations that the exposure of the person was in the presence of another person, or was made in a public place. Wharton, Precedents of Indictments, Vol. 2, pp. 306, 307-8-9.\nThe information under consideration has no such allegations, nor is it averred therein that a \u201cnotorious act of public indecency \u201d was committed.\nIt was not allowable to put defendant upon trial without \"a specification of the offense in the indictment or information.\nIf the language of the statute sufficiently describes the act or acts constituting the offense, then no more is required than that the words of the statute be employed in the information or indictment; but when, as in the case at bar, the statute does not so describe such acts, then the indictment must specifically set them forth. Johnson v. People, 113 Ill. p. 102.\nThe motions to quash the information should have been sustained.\nThe judgment must be, and is, reversed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Presiding Justice Boggs"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "M. R. Davidson and James Hicks, attorneys for plaintiff in error.",
      "H. H. Crea, State\u2019s Attorney, for defendant in error."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Thomas B. Williams v. The People of the State of Illinois.\n1. Criminal Law\u2014Lewdwess, When Deemed to he Open.\u2014Lewdness is deemed to be open only when it is committed in the presence of another, or in a place open to the public view.\n2. Criminal Pleadings\u2014Srtfficieney of Information Under the Statute.\u2014If the language of the statute sufficiently describes the act constituting the offense, then no more is required than that the words of the statute be employed in the information or indictment; but where the statute does not so describe such acts, the information or indictment must specifically set them forth.\n3. Same\u2014Information for Lewdness.\u2014An information for lewdness, under section 55 of the criminal code, which does not contain averments that a notorious act of public indecency was committed, is fatally defective.\nIndictment, for lewdness. Error to the County Court of Piatt County; the Hon. F. M. Shonkwiler, Judge, presiding.\nHeard in this court at the May term, 1896.\nReversed.\nOpinion filed November 25, 1896.\nM. R. Davidson and James Hicks, attorneys for plaintiff in error.\nH. H. Crea, State\u2019s Attorney, for defendant in error."
  },
  "file_name": "0344-01",
  "first_page_order": 342,
  "last_page_order": 343
}