Bradley v. State

Citations

• 79 Fla. 651
• 84 So. 677

Syllabus

<p>1. The intent of a statute is the law.</p> <p>2. A statury definition of a felony should not by construction or interpretation be extended to cover acts or omissions of persons that are not within the intent of the statute, for the lawmaking power can legally designate or define the criminal offenses for which penalties may be imposed.</p> <p>3. Where the charge is a crime it must have clear legislative basis.</p> <p>4. It is the Legislature, not the court, which is to define a crime, and ordain its punishment.</p> <p>5. It is necessary that a sufficient statutory authority should exist for declaring any act or omission a criminal offense.</p> <p>6. It is axiomatic that statutes creating and defining crimes cannot be extended by intendment, and that no act, however wrongful, can be punished under such a statute unless clearly within its terms.</p> <p>7. There can be no constructive offenses, and before a man can be punished, his case must be plainly and unmistakably within the statute.</p> <p>8. The failure or refusal of a father to provide medical attention for his child who was accidentally burned by falling in a fire, from which burns the child subsequently died, does not make the father guilty of the crime of manslaughter defined by statute to be “the killing of a- human being by the act, procurement or culpable negligence of another.”</p>