Bute v. Illinois

In the Circuit Court of La Salle County, Illinois, the petitioner, Roy Bute, pleaded guilty to the crime of “taking indecent liberties with children” as charged in each of two indictments and, on each plea, was sentenced to confinement in the Illinois State Penitentiary for not *644less than one nor more than 20 years, the sentences to run consecutively. Each common law record is silent on the subject of counsel for the petitioner’s defense. The issue here is whether or not each state sentence shall be held to have been imposed in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to…