The PEOPLE v. Bender

The defendant, William Bender, was tried by jury in the circuit court of Macoupin County in 1954 and convicted of the crime of armed robbery. In i960, we reversed the judgment of the trial court because of prejudicial errors at a pretrial sanity hearing. (People v. Bender, 20 Ill.2d 45.) A new trial was held in 1961 and the defendant was again convicted. The case is now here on a writ of error issued to review the second judgment of conviction.

The principal issue on this writ of error, as it was before, is the sanity of the defendant at the time he was placed on trial, although neither…