In re Estate of Mulholland

Citations

• 97 Cal. 527
• 32 P. 568
• 1893 Cal. LEXIS 585

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law — Sentence — Imprisonment por Non-payment op Fine — Powers of Inferior Courts — Penal Code. — Section 1446 of the Penal Code, relating to proceedings in justices’ and police courts, and providing that a judgment that a defendant pay a fine may also direct that he be imprisoned until the fine is satisfied, in the proportion of one day’s imprisonment for every dollar of the fine, was not affected by the amendment of March 19, 1891 (Stats. 1891, p. 52), to section 1205 of the same code, which is a limitation upon the powers of the superior court, and provides that the judgment of imprisonment shall not exceed one day for every two dollars of the fine, nor extend in any case beyond the term for which the defendant might be imprisoned.</p> <p>Id.—Different Degrees of Punishment — Validity of Statute. — The fact that criminals may be subjected to different degrees of punishment for the same offense in different courts, in the exercise of a limited discretion, does not affect the validity of the law.</p> <p>Id. — Sentence of Police Court — Habeas Corpus. — A defendant convicted in the police court of a crime for which the punishment by imprisonment could not exceed fifty days, and sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred dollars, at the rate of one day for each dollar of the fine remaining unpaid, is not entitled to release upon habeas corpus.</p>