Constitutional Law Keyed to Stone
Beauharnais v. Illinois
Facts
As a result of the Petitioner’s participation in the distribution of the leaflet, he was convicted under an Illinois state statute declaring it unlawful for any person to distribute any publication “that portrays depravity, criminality, unchastity or lack of virtue of a class of citizens, of any race, color, creed or religion, which publication exposes those citizens to contempt, derision, or obloquy or which is productive of breach of the peace or riots.” At trial, the judge refused to instruct the jury that in order to convict, they must find “that the article complained of was likely to produce a clear and present danger of serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance or unrest.” The trial judge also refused to consider the Petitioner’s offer of proof on the issue of truth, because, under Illinois law, the defense of truth is unavailable in a prosecution for criminal libel unless “the truth of all facts in the utterance be shown together wit h good motive for the publication.”
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