The PEOPLE v. Berry

Under an indictment returned to the criminal court of Cook County, defendant, Waddell Berry, was charged in count 1 with the unlawful possession of policy paraphernalia on February 14, 1958, punishable as a misdemeanor, and in count 2 with the same act of possession plus a prior conviction for the possession of policy paraphernalia on October 17, 1952. The Criminal Code provides that a second conviction for such possession is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary. (See: Ill. Rev. Stat. 1957, chap. 38, par. 413.) Defendant waived a jury and, prior to trial on July 2, 1958, filed a…