State v. McBride
| Decision Date | 03 December 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. A--518,A--518 |
| Citation | 83 A.2d 627,15 N.J.Super. 436 |
| Parties | STATE v. McBRIDE. |
| Court | New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division |
James McBride submitted a brief pro se.
Before Judges JACOBS, EASTWOOD and BIGELOW.
This is an appeal from a judgment on habeas corpus remanding the appellant to the State Prison.
Four indictments were returned by the Camden grand jury in 1944, each charging appellant with robbery and each alleging prior convictions of high misdemeanors, in order to present a basis for a sentence of life imprisonment under R.S. 2:103--10, L.1940, c. 219, § 3, N.J.S.A. The indictments were tried together and resulted in a verdict that the appellant was guilty of the four robberies and that the allegation of the former convictions was true. On April 3, 1945, the court, in the first three cases, suspended sentence, and in the last case, imposed a life sentence in the State Prison. For the meaning and effect of a 'suspended sentence', see State v. Osborne, 79 N.J.Eq. 430, 82 A. 424 (Ch., 1911); In re Baer, 140 N.J.Eq. 571, 55 A.2d 248 (E. & A.1947), and R.S 2:199--1, N.J.S.A. On the habeas corpus and on this appeal, the appellant contends that the sentence for life was void because it violated his constitutional immunity from being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense
We need consider only one branch of appellant's argument: That the offense charged in each of the indictments was the same, namely, being an habitual criminal; that as soon as the court suspended sentence on one of the convictions, the authority of the court to impose a sentence on the other convictions terminated.
The statute to which we have already referred enacts that a person who, after three convictions of high misdemeanors, is thereafter convicted of a subsequent offense, 'is hereby declared to be an habitual criminal, and the court in which such fourth or subsequent conviction is had, shall impose a life sentence in the State Prison upon the person so convicted.' The offense, however, of which the defendant may be convicted and for which the life sentence may be given, is not being an habitual criminal; it is the particular robbery or other crime laid in the indictment on which the culprit is sentenced. The averment of the former convictions is only a matter of aggravation that increases the punishment for the robbery. McDonald v. Massachusetts, 180 U.S. 311, 21 S.Ct. 389, 45 L.Ed. 542 (1901); Goodman v. Kunkle, 7 Cir., 72...
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