Case ID: la-ann_7/html/0109-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Preston, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The State v. William Featherston.
    The Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases, only where the punishment of death or hard labor in the penitentiary may be inflicted.
    APPEAL from the District Court of Madison, J. N. T. Richardson, J.
    
    
      Isaac Johnson, Attorney General for the State, contended :
    The State has appealed from a judgment of the district court, quashing an information filed by the district attorney against the defendant, for neglect to perform the duties imposed on him as a road overseer, in the parish of Madison.
    A road overseer for neglect of duty, may be fined in a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. Acts 9, 1818. Bullard and Curry, p. 740, sec. 11.
    By the 63d article of the State Constitution, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases on questions of law alone, whenever the punishment of death or hard labor may be inflicted, or when a fine exceeding three hundred dollars is actually imposed. I think, therefore, that the State is not entitled to this appeal.
    
      A. Snyder, for the defendant.
   The judgment of the court was pronounced by

Preston, J.

The defendant having been appointed an overseer of roads in the parish of Madison, was prosecuted for neglect to perform, in that capacity, the duties imposed upon him by law. The district court, on the motion of his counsel, quashed the information, and the State has appealed.

The Constitution gives this court appellate jurisdiction “ in criminal cases, on questions of law alone, whenever the punishment of death or hard labor may be inflicted, or when a fine exceeding three hundred dollars is actually imposed.’'

No fine at all has been imposed in the present_ case, and no law imposes the punishment ot death or hard labor for the offence, for which the accused is prosecuted.

This court is, therefore, without jurisdiction of the case, and the appeal is dismissed.