The People v. Helm

The defendant, James F. Helm, was convicted of murder by a jury in the circuit court of Rock Island County and sentenced to a term of 14 to 40 years imprisonment. The appellate court affirmed (84 Ill. App. 2d 322), and we granted leave to appeal to consider (1) whether it was proper to use Helm’s military court-martial conviction of an infamous crime to impeach his credibility after he testified on his own behalf during his murder trial and, (2) whether it was reversible error for the prosecutor to read a copy of the defendant’s court-martial conviction for a non-infamous crime to the jury…