Case ID: cal_7/html/0356-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Murray, C. J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE PEOPLE v. GILL.
    Where a criminal statute is changed between the time of the commission of an offence and conviction, but contains a saving clause, to the effect that it shall not apply to the trial of offences committed prior to the amended act, the punishment of the prisoner must be regulated by the old law.
    Appeal from the Listriet Court of the Sixth Judicial Listrict.
    The defendant was indicted on the seventeenth of June, 1856, for the crime of murder, committed on the twenty-second day of March, 1856. He was tried on the thirteenth day of February, and convicted of the crime of manslaughter. Motion being made for arrest of judgment and overruled, defendant was sentenced to eighteen months’ confinement in the state prison, from which judgment this appeal was taken.
    
      Curtis, Griffith & Robinson, for Appellant.
    
      The only point in this case arises on the facts set out in the indictment.
    It appears that the crime was committed on the twenty-second day of March, a. d. 1856. It also appears that the indictment was found in June, a. d. 1856.
    In April, a. n. 1856, after the commission of the crime, and before the finding of the indictment, the law was changed, and there was no law authorizing the finding of the indictment, or trying and punishing the defendant under said indictment.
    
      W. T. Wallace, Attorney-General, for Respondents.
    It is contended that there is no law in force for the punishment of manslaughter. It will be borne in mind that the offence was committed on the twenty-second day of March, 1856; on the nineteenth of April, 1856, the law was amended. (See Statutes of 1856, p. 219.) By the tenth section of that act, it is provided that nothing contained therein “ shall apply to the trial of persons indicted for offences committed prior to the passage of the amended act. In all such cases, the punishment shall be fixed in accordance with the laws heretofore existing.” For the law in relation to the punishment of manslaughter, theretofore existing, see Compiled Laws, p. 641, § 26.
   Murray, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court—Burnett, J., concurring.

The appellant was convicted of manslaughter. The offence was committed on the twenty-second day of March, 1856. On the nineteenth of April, 1856, the act concerning crimes and punishments was amended, and the punishment for various crimes was altered.

It is now contended that there is no law by which the prisoner can be punished. If the old law had been repealed and no provisions made for past offences, then, undoubtedly, he would have to be discharged; but the tenth section of the act of 1856 contains a saving clause, to the effect that nothing contained therein shall apply to the trial of persons indicted for offences committed prior to the amended act. In all such cases, the punishment shall be fixed in accordance with the laws heretofore existing.”

v The appellant was indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced, under the old law. The judgment is regular, and must be affirmed.