Case Name: Maurice Smith vs. Commonwealth
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1901-03-21
Citations: 178 Mass. 340
Docket Number: 
Parties: Maurice Smith vs. Commonwealth.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 178
Pages: 340–341

Head Matter:
Maurice Smith vs. Commonwealth.
Suffolk.
March 20, 1901.
March 21, 1901.
Present: Holmes, C. J., Morton, Lathrop, Barker, & Loring, JJ.
Where a prisoner was sentenced for a period longer than authorized by the statute under which he was indicted, the sentence was reversed on writ of error, and the case remanded to the Superior Court for sentence by that court according to law.
Petition for a writ of error to reverse a sentence of the Superior Court in and for the county of Hampden, passed October 3, 1899, ordering that the petitioner, who had been found guilty of larceny from the person of another, be punished by imprisonment in the State prison for not more than seven years and not less than six years, filed January 21, 1901.
Pub. Sts. c. 203, § 19 provides that “ Whoever commits larceny by stealing from the person of another shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding five years, or in the jail not exceeding two years.”
P. W. Carver, for the plaintiff in error.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The sentence was for a longer period than is authorized by the statute. Pub. Sts. c. 203, § 19.
Judgment reversed.
Ordered, that the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court, for the County of Suffolk, make the following entry, under said case, in the docket of said Court, viz.:
The full Court reverses the sentence of the Superior Court for the County of Hampden, in the case of the Commonwealth v. Maurice Smith and orders the case remanded to said Superior Court for sentence by that Court according to law and a certified copy of this rescript to be sent by the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the County of Suffolk to the Superior Court for the County of Hampden.