People v. Smith

The plaintiff in error, Herman Smith, was convicted of rape, in the criminal court of Cook county, in February, 1906. The prosecuting witness was a white woman about sixty years of age and the plaintiff in error a young negro. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, finding that plaintiff in error was between the ages of ten and twenty-one years and about nineteen years old, but specifying no punishment. The trial judge sentenced him to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, where he has since been confined.

The evidence heard on the trial has not been preserved or presented here. We cannot…