Court Opinion

ID: 9825415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 12:54:31.966639+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:47.321545
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
The application for rehearing is confined principally to the proposition that Section 3962 of the Code 1923, under which the appellant was indicted, tried, and convicted, is unconstitutional for the several reasons stated in said application; the main insistence being that the section is violative of Section 20 6f the 1901 Constitution. Said section is very terse and provides: “That no person shall be imprisoned for debt.”
We are of the opinion that appellant’s able counsel are correct in their insistence to the effect, that the question of the constitutionality of a Statute on which a criminal prosecution is based, may be raised for the first time at any stage of the proceedings, either in the trial court or on appeal.
We, however, cannot accord to appellant’s contention that the provision in the Bill of Rights, “That no person shall be imprisoned for debt,” is applicable to the case at bar under the facts adduced upon the trial in the court below; this, for the reason that constitutional provision is limited to contract liabilities; debts incurred by contract inter partes. This prosecution was not for the purpose of coercing the payment of the trust fund in question and the result of the prosecution could have resulted in no gain to the wards for whom this appellant was guardian. The prosecution, as stated in the original opinion, was for the violation of the penal Statute therein mentioned. Opinion extended.
Application for rehearing overruled.