The People v. Cooper

The defendant, Dorothy Cooper, was indicted for murder in the criminal court of Cook County. She entered a plea of not guilty and waived a jury trial. The court found defendant guilty of murder and sentenced her to imprisonment in the Illinois Reformatory for Women for a term of fourteen years. As the sole ground for reversal, defendant contends that the action of the trial judge in making a private investigation of certain of her witnesses and visiting the premises where the death occurred constituted a denial of due process of law and deprived her of her constitutional right to be…