Ex parte Brown

8 P. 829, 68 Cal. 176, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 775
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 7, 1885
DocketNo. 20155
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 8 P. 829 (Ex parte Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Brown, 8 P. 829, 68 Cal. 176, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 775 (Cal. 1885).

Opinion

Thornton, J.

Application for admission to bail by Brown and Weile, after the verdict of the jury finding each of them guilty of a felony, and before judgment pronounced on the verdict. The verdict was accepted and recorded by the court.

It is contended that, under the law of this state, the applicants are entitled to be admitted to bail as a matter of right.

It was held in People v. Tinder, 19 Cal. 539, under the constitution of 1849, that in all other than capital cases, and in all capital cases where the guilt is not evident or the presumption great, a defendant is entitled to bail as a matter of right. The constitution of 1879 has made no change in the law as just above stated. And under the former constitution (and the same is the rule under the present constitution), the guaranty of bail as a matter of right extends only to those cases where the party has not already been convicted. (Ex parte Voll, 41 Cal. 9.)

The statute (see Penal Code, secs. 1270, 1271, 1272) is in accord with the foregoing. We insert here the text of these sections:—

“Sec. 1270. A defendant charged with an offense punishable with death cannot be admitted to bail when the proof of his guilt is evident or the presumption thereof great. The finding of an indictment does not add to [178]*178the strength of the proof or the presumptions to be drawn therefrom.

“Sec. 1271. If the charge is for any other offense, he may be admitted to bail before conviction, as a matter of right.

“Sec. 1272. After conviction of an offense not punishable with death, a defendant who has appealed may be admitted to bail,—

“1. As a matter of right, when the appeal is from a judgment imposing a fine only;

.“ 2. As a matter of discretion in all other cases.”

It is said that there has been no conviction in this case, as judgment has not been pronounced on the verdict.

The question then presented for decision is this: What is a conviction? The ordinary meaning of. this word is the finding by a jury of a verdict that the accused is guilty. In legal parlance, it often signifies the final judgment of the court. The above is said to be the signification of the word “.conviction” in Blaufus v. People, 69 N. Y. 109.

Blackstone says: “If the jury find him [the prisoner] guilty, he is then said to be convicted of the crime whereof he stands indicted; which conviction may occur two ways: either by his confessing the offense and pleading guilty, or by his being found so by the verdict of his country.” (4 Black. Com. 262.) The same author says: “The plea of autrefois acquit, or a former conviction for the same identical crime, though no judgment was ever given or perhaps will be (being suspended by the benefit of clergy or other causes), is a good plea in bar to an indictment.” (4 Black. Com. 336.) In 1 Inst. 391, it is said: “The difference between a man attainted and convicted is, that a man is said convict before he hath judgment; as, if a man be convict by confession, verdict, or recreancie, and when he hath his judgment upon the verdict, he is said to be attaint,” And further, it is said [179]*179by the same writer: “So as by conviction of a felon, his goods and chattels are forfeited; but by attainder, that is, by judgment given, his lands and tenements are forfeited and his blood corrupted, and not before.” In Jacob’s Law Dictionary, 163, it is said: "There is a great difference between a man convicted and attainted, though they are frequently, though inaccurately, confounded together”; and in the same work it is said: “Convict, convictas, — he that is found guilty of an offense by verdict of a jury. Crompton saith that conviction is either when a man is outlawed, or appeareth and confesseth, or is found guilty by the inquest; and when a statute excludes from clergy persons found guilty of felony, etc., it extends to those who are convicted by confession. (2 Cromp. Just. 9.)” “Judgment amounts to conviction, though it doth not follow that every one who is convicted is adjudged.” (2 Cromp. Just. 63, tit. Convict and Conviction.) Bishop says: “The word ‘conviction’ ordinarily signifies the finding of the jury, by verdict, that the prisoner is guilty. When it is said there has been a conviction, or one is convict, the meaning usually is, not that sentence has been pronounced, but only that the verdict has been returned. So a plea of guilty by the defendant constitutes a conviction of him.” He then quotes the passage first above given from 1 Inst., and continues: “Yet the word ‘conviction,’ when it stands in such a connection with other words as to indicate a secondary or unusual meaning, sometimes denotes the final judgment of the court. Where the proceeding is civil in form, for the recovery of a fine, there cannot be what in law is called a conviction. It has likewise some other significations; according to one of which, ‘a conviction is defined to be a record of the summary proceedings upon any penal statute, before one or more justices of the peace, or other persons duly authorized, in a case where the offender has been convicted and sentenced.’ ” (Bish. on Stat. Or., sec. 348.) The same writer says: “A [180]*180conviction, in ordinary legal language, consists of a plea or verdict of guilty, and it is immaterial whether or not final judgment has heen rendered thereon.” (2 Bish. Cr. Law, sec. 903; 1 Bish. Cr. Law, sec. 963.) See also, on this point, People v. March, 6 Cal. 543; People v. Goldstein, 32 Cal. 433; Blair’s Case, 25 Gratt. 853; Commonwealth v. Williamson, 2 Va. Cas. 211; Shepherd v. People, 24 How. Pr. 38; Commonwealth v. Lockwood, 109 Mass. 324; State v. Alexander, 76 N. C. 231; Commonwealth v. Richards, 17 Pick. 296; Nason v. Staples, 48 Me. 125; United States v. Gilbert, 2 Sum. 40; 2 Hawk. P. C. 36, secs. 1, 10; United States v. Watkinds, 6 Fed. Rep. 153; Bouvier’s Law Dict., verb. Conviction.

The foregoing references show that the ordinary meaning of the word “conviction” is the verdict of guilty pronounced by a jury. As said by Bead, J., speaking for the court in State v. Alexander, supra: “The word is ordinarily used to denote the verdict of the jury, guilty. How did the jury find? Guilty; or they convicted him. What did the judge do? Sentenced him to be hanged. This is the language ordinarily used in such matters, both in conversation and in books, law and literary. It is never said that the jury sentenced him nor that the judge convicted him.” (76 N. C. 232.)

How, while the word may be used as signifying the sentence pronounced on the verdict, or the record of conviction, including inter alla the verdict and sentence, still such meaning ought not to be attributed to it, unless there is something in the context to indicate that it was. used in such sense, as in Commonwealth v. Gorham, 99 Mass. 420; Burgess v. Boetafeur, 7 Man. & G. 481, 508.

The words “conviction” and “convicted” are used in the constitution and frequently in the statutes of this state. (See Const., art. 1, sec. 20, and the following sections of the Penal Code: 681, 689,1097,1103,1104, 1108, 1110,1111,1157,1161,1162,1193,1195,1197,1201,1217, 1218, 1227, 1243, 1271,1272, 1417, 1418, 1420.

[181]

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Bluebook (online)
8 P. 829, 68 Cal. 176, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 775, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-brown-cal-1885.