{
  "id": 2504372,
  "name": "The People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. Warren Wockner, Plaintiff in Error",
  "name_abbreviation": "People v. Wockner",
  "decision_date": "1945-01-17",
  "docket_number": "No. 28293",
  "first_page": "381",
  "last_page": "383",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "389 Ill. 381"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill.",
    "id": 8772,
    "name": "Illinois Supreme Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "357 Ill. 481",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill.",
      "case_ids": [
        5282725
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill/357/0481-01"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 240,
    "char_count": 3818,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.753,
    "pagerank": {
      "raw": 1.2240919645422112e-07,
      "percentile": 0.6013431671112872
    },
    "sha256": "0e01fd5f9105b09cde6e85976f00d0e8566c153b1a3d0d59c41cf7686b0ebf21",
    "simhash": "1:61fecc0283aebcb7",
    "word_count": 650
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:15:43.220958+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "The People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. Warren Wockner, Plaintiff in Error."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Justice Smith\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nThis is a writ of error to review a judgment entered by the circuit court of Iroquois county on March 21, 1929. Plaintiff in error appears pro se. On that date he entered a plea of guilty to an indictment charging him with the crime of burglary. At that time he was twenty-one years of age. He was sentenced on his plea to \u201cThe Penitentiary of this State, at Stateville, Illinois,\u201d for an indeterminate term of from one year to life. He has presented here only the common-law record, which is sufficient to raise the qu\u00e9stions presented.\nHis first contention is that he should have been sentenced to \u201cThe Illinois State Penitentiary, at Joliet,\u201d and that his sentence to \u201cThe Penitentiary of this State, at Stateville, Illinois,\u201d is erroneous. It is argued that when he was sentenced in March, 1929, the only place to which he could be lawfully sentenced was the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet. He asks that the judgment be reversed and the cause remanded to the circuit court of Iroquois county with directions to enter a proper sentence, with a minimum and maximum term to be fixed by the court in accordance with the 1943 amendment to section 2 of the Parole Act. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1943, chap. 38, par. 802.\nAt the time plaintiff in error was sentenced, the Parole Act, as revised on June 25, 1917, was in force. (Smith-Hurd Rev. Stat. 1927, chap. 38, par. 801 et seq.) Section 2 of the act, as it then existed, provided that for all crimes, except those enumerated in section 1, for which a definite sentence was imposed, the sentence \u201cshall be a general sentence of imprisonment, and the courts of this State imposing such sentence or commitment shall not fix the limit or duration of such imprisonment. The term of such imprisonment or commitment shall be for not less than the minimum nor greater than the maximum term provided by law for the offense of which the person stands convicted or committed.\u201d Smith-Hurd Rev. Stat. 1927, chap. 38, par. 802.\nThe penitentiary at Stateville, constructed under the act approved June 5, 1907, (Laws of 1907, p. 45,) is a part of the Illinois State Penitentiary. (Smith-Hurd Rev. Stat. 1927, chap. 108, par. 43a.) The sentence, therefore, to \u201cThe Penitentiary of this State at Stateville, Illinois,\u201d was a sentence to the Illinois State Penitentiary. The location of the penitentiary to which plaintiff in error was sentenced, included in the sentence, was merely the designation of the branch of the Illinois State Penitentiary where the sentence should be served. The addition of those words neither added to nor rendered invalid the sentence imposed. It was a sentence, generally, of imprisonment. It was a sentence, generally, to the Illinois State Penitentiary, designating the Stateville branch of such penitentiary.\nIn the case of People v. Mikula, 357 Ill. 481, the sentence involved was imposed after the amendment of 1933 to the Parole Law, and also subsequent to the enactment of the act consolidating the various penitentiaries into a single institution. That case is not applicable here.\nPlaintiff in error further contends that his sentence for a term of \u201cNot.less than one year and may extend to life,\u201d was erroneous. His argument is that he should have been sentenced for a term of \u201cNot less than one year nor more than life.\u201d This is simply a play on words. It is a distinction without a difference.\nThe judgment of the circuit court of Iroquois county is affirmed.\nT j , n? 7 Judgment affirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Justice Smith"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Warren Wockner, pro se.",
      "George F. Barrett, Attorney General, and A. Fred Kendall, State's Attorney, of Watseka, for the People."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "(No. 28293.\nThe People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. Warren Wockner, Plaintiff in Error.\nOpinion filed January 17, 1945\nRehearing denied March 19, 1945.\nWarren Wockner, pro se.\nGeorge F. Barrett, Attorney General, and A. Fred Kendall, State's Attorney, of Watseka, for the People."
  },
  "file_name": "0381-01",
  "first_page_order": 381,
  "last_page_order": 383
}