Court Opinion

ID: 9809699
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:22:11.365295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:56:46.079883
License: Public Domain

Walker, J.,
concurring in result: I must concur in the opinion of the Court because so many cases have been decided to the same effect; but it must not be understood that I assent to the doctrine that the Legislature, under the article of our Constitution providing for the trial of petty misdemeanors, without a jury, but with the right of appeal, has the arbitrary right to declare what offenses shall be petty misdemeanors, so *494as to confer jurisdiction to try and condemn to infamous punishment without a presentment or indictment by a grand jury and a trial by a petit jury. What difference does it make that wo call it a petty misdemeanor, when the crime is punished, upon conviction, with hard labor and with stripes — in other words, infamously and as a felony? It seems to me that it is calling a thing by the wrong name, and is violative, not only of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, but of the sacred rights of the citizen, as guaranteed by that instrument, and which guaranty existed long before it was adopted. By the use of the term “petty misdemeanor” was meant such offenses as were known, in the law, by that name at the time the Constitution was ratified, or offenses of a similar grade. I am not attempting to overthrow the decisions of this Court by argument or precedent — for if that was my purpose, I would proceed in a different way — but merely to enter my earnest dissent 1o the principle, so often announced, as subversive of the rights and liberty of the citizen, and especially of the consecrated right of trial by jury. If you can, by legislative enactment, make larceny a petty misdemeanor, why not manslaughter, perjury, and other offenses of a higher grade of criminality? But we have often decided that this can be done — that is, that certain offenses which are punished infamously, by hard labor and involuntary servitude, and in a way far more degrading than corporal punishment, can be declared ^petty misdemeanors. The misdemeanant is sent to the roads, and by the same kind of reasoning he may be sent to the penitentiary, because, at last, it all depends upon the legislative will as to what offenses shall be felonies and what misdemeanors. I think we should retrace our steps, and decide the question according to the plain meaning of the Constitution; but until this is done, I must abide by the precedents.
Allkn, J., concurs in this opinion.