The People v. Lawrence

The defendant, William Elbert Lawrence, was indicted in the criminal court of Cook county for robbery, and was, in the second count of the indictment, charged with a prior conviction. He filed a special plea of immunity and also a motion to quash the indictment on the ground" that the act commonly known as the Habitual Criminal Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1943, chap. 38, par. 602,) was and is a bill of attainder and, as such, violates not only the constitution of the United States but also the constitution of the State of Illinois. Both motions being overruled, the defendant entered a plea of not…