People Ex Rel. Miller v. Pate

This appeal by defendant Phillip D. Miller is from an order of the circuit court of Will County denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which alleged that he was illegally imprisoned pursuant to proceedings based upon a fatally defective indictment for forgery.

The sole issue here is whether an indictment for forgery under the new Criminal Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1965, ch. 38, par. 17—3) must set out the instrument in haec verba, or by facsimile copy, in addition to narrating its substance in the purport clause.

The operative facts are not in dispute. On May 10, 1966, an indictment was…