Bute v. Illinois (333 U.S. 640)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 19, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 333 U.S. 640 · 68 S. Ct. 763
- Decided
- April 19, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Burton
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Burton delivered the opinion of the Court. In the Circuit Court of La Salle County, Illinois, the petitioner, Roy Bute, pleaded guilty to the crime of “taking indecent liberties with children” as charged in each of two indictments and, on each plea, was sentenced to confinement in the Illinois State Penitentiary for not less than one nor more than 20 years, the sentences to run consecutively. Each common law record is silent on the subject of counsel for the petitioner’s defense. The issue here is whether or not each state sentence shall be held to have been imposed in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States because each common law record shows that the petitioner appeared “in his own proper person” and does not show that the court inquired as to the petitioner’s desire to be represented by counsel, or his ability to procure counsel, or his desire to have counsel assigned to him to assist him in his defense, or that such counsel was offered or assigned to him. We hold that such a silence in the respective records does not suffice to invalidate the sentences. We hold further that, in the absence of any showing beyond that in these records, the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not require the Illinois court to make the inquiries or the offer or assignment of counsel now claimed to…
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