The PEOPLE v. Booker

An indictment returned to the criminal court of Cook County charged the defendant, Reuben Booker, with having robbed a grocery store on January 16, 1957, and, in a separate count, it was alleged that he had been previously convicted of armed robbery in 1949 so as to invoke the provisions of the Habitual Criminal Act. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1955, chap. 38, par. 602.) Prior to trial defendant unsuccessfully sought to quash the habitual count, or, in the alternative, to delay trial on such count until the current robbery charge was adjudicated. Thereafter, at the trial which followed, the State’s…