Case ID: mass_123/html/0407-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Gray, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Commonwealth vs. Jeremiah Desmond.
    Essex.
    November 7. — 8, 1877.
    Morton & Soule, JJ., absent.
    The rules, relating to the construction of repealing statutes, enacted by the St. of 1869, c. 410, are to be deemed part of every repealing statute since passed, as much as if expressly inserted therein, unless the later statute clearly manifests a different intention.
    Indictment on the St. of 1874, c. 356, for illegal voting, found by the grand jury empanelled at January term 1876 of the Superior Court. After a verdict of guilty, the defendant, at January term 1877, moved in arrest of judgment, for the reason that “ the statute, under which the indictment was framed, was repealed by the St. of 1876, c. 172,” passed April 26, 1876.
    The motion was overruled; and the defendant alleged exceptions.
    
      Q. A. Benjamin, for the defendant.
    
      W. O. Boring, Assistant Attorney General, (O. B. Train, Attorney General, with him,) for the Commonwealth.
   Gray, C. J.

By the St. of 1869, c. 410, entitled “ an act to establish certain rules for .the construction of repealing statutes,” it is enacted that “in the construction of all statutes hereafter enacted the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be repugnant to the express terms of the same statute.”- The general rules so established are to be deemed part of every repealing statute since passed, as much as if expressly inserted therein, unless the later statute clearly manifests a different intention. One of these rules is that the repeal of an act shall not affect any prosecution pending at the time of the repeal for an. offence committed under the act repealed. The St. of 1876, c. 172, § 4, which simply enacts that the St. of 1874, c. 856, “ is hereby repealed,” does not therefore affect this prosecution, which was pending under the St. of 1874 when the_St. of 1876 was passed. ¡Exceptions overruled.