Burns v. the People

In 1913, at a time when he was 17 years old, Winston Burns, to whom we shall refer as defendant, was indicted in the criminal court of Cook County for the crime of robbery. He entered a plea of guilty, which was persisted in after due admonition by the court, and was sentenced to the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac for a term of one to fourteen years. In August, 1953, more than forty years after his conviction, defendant filed in the same court what purported to be an application for a writ of error coram nobis wherein it was prayed that the judgment of conviction be set aside. The…