People v. Hill

After a non jury trial in the First Municipal District of the Circuit Court of Cook County the defendant, Clarence Hill, who was not represented by counsel, was found guilty of theft “in manner and form as charged in the complaint herein” and was sentenced to the House of Correction for six months. The defendant asserts that his conviction should be reversed because he was tried under a void complaint and by a court which lacked jurisdiction.

The complaint was drawn on a quasi-criminal form but was in reality a criminal complaint which charged that Clarence Hill,

“. . . on or about 16 August…