State v. McFarlin

• Decision Date: 18 October 1917
• Docket Number: 2291.
• Citation: 167 P. 1011,41 Nev. 105
• Parties: STATE v. MCFARLIN.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

167 P. 1011

41 Nev. 105

STATE v. MCFARLIN.

No. 2291.

Supreme Court of Nevada

October 18, 1917

George B. McFarlin was convicted of embezzlement, and, pending his appeal, petitions for a certificate of probable cause, and to be admitted to bail. Heard at Chambers by the Chief Justice and petitioner admitted to bail.

James M. Frame and Howard Browne, all of Reno, for petitioner.

George J. Kenney, Dist. Atty., Geo. B. Thatcher, Atty. Gen., and E T. Patrick, Deputy Atty. Gen., for the State.

McCARRAN C.J.

Petitioner was convicted of the crime of embezzlement by a jury in the Eighth judicial district court, and thereafter made his motion in that court for a new trial upon the several statutory grounds, including that of newly discovered evidence. The trial court overruled the latter motion, and pronounced judgment and imposed sentence on petitioner fixing the penalty at imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period of one to fourteen years. The defendant's notice of appeal to the Supreme Court was duly filed within time as prescribed by our Criminal Practice Act. The petition here recites the essential facts, and further presents that the record has already been transcribed, and that defendant will proceed with all expedition to make his bill of exceptions and have the same settled and signed. Petitioner prays for a certificate of probable cause, and my attention was directed to the statute in this respect.

Section 7294, Revised Laws 1912, the same being section 444 of our Criminal Practice Act, is as follows:

"An appeal to the Supreme Court from a judgment of conviction shall stay the execution of the judgment upon filing with the clerk of the court in which the conviction shall have been had a certificate of the judge of such court, or of a justice of the Supreme Court, that in his opinion there is probable cause for the appeal, but not otherwise."

In the case of State v. Murphy, 23 Nev. 391, 48 P. 628, this court held that the appeal from a judgment of imprisonment does not operate as a stay of execution, and the defendant, if in custody, must so continue, unless admitted to bail.

Section 7314, Revised Laws (section 464, Criminal Practice Act), is as follows:

"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, where the appeal is from a judgment imposing a fine only; (2) as a matter of discretion in all other cases."

Section 7326, Revised Laws (section 476, Criminal Practice Act), is as follows:

"In the cases in which the defendant may be admitted to bail, upon an appeal, the order admitting him to bail may be made by the court or judge who tried the case or by the court to which the appeal is taken or the judge or a justice thereof."

I find that on a number of occasions the California courts and the judges thereof have considered and determined this question, and in some instances their opinions meet with my view as to the proper application of the statute; the Code there being the same as ours. Kerr's Cyc. Codes, Penal Code, 1272. In the case of Ex parte Voll, 41 Cal. 29, the Supreme Court considered the matter at length under proceedings in habeas corpus. Petitioner there urged the contention that the provision of the Constitution (article 1, § 7) intended that bail should be granted as a matter of right, even after conviction. It will be interesting to note here that the provision of the Constitution of California in this respect is identical with that found in our Constitution (article 1, § 7) as follows: "All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for capital offenses when the proof is evident, or the presumption great."

It was asserted by the court there, and we think correctly, that the clause of the Constitution cited is only designated to alter the rule of common law as to certain criminal cases before conviction, and that the matter of bail after conviction is still left discretionary, as it was at common law, with the modifications wrought by the statutes of the state. The court said:

"We are of opinion that the Constitution, in declaring bail to be a matter of right, contemplated only those cases in which the guilt of the party had not been already judicially ascertained; cases in which the prisoner as yet stood upon his plea of not guilty, supported with all the presumptions of innocence with which the law delights to surround him. But when his trial has been had, and his plea proven false, the law will not stultify itself by presuming him other than that it has itself adjudged him to be. If the Constitution, indeed, intended to introduce the rule of absolute right to bail, as well after as before conviction of such felonies, it would result that no convict could be punished for his ascertained crime if he had either wealth or friends; for no mere pecuniary considerations could weigh against the alternative of a degrading imprisonment, at hard labor, for a crime involving moral turpitude. It would operate in practice as a mere money commutation for the infamous corporeal punishment which the law has denounced against the perpetration of crime."

In this decision we find the announcement of the principle so oft referred to by courts and judges, to the effect that under statutes such as ours admission to bail after conviction is a matter of sound judicial discretion, and that, too, only when the showing made presents something unusual or extraordinary from which or out of which it may appear: First, that the appeal is taken in good faith, and is perfected according to the statutory rule; and, second, that there is some element or condition, properly questionable by the court of review, from which, or out of which, the conviction theretofore had may be set aside, or that matters intervening between the conviction and the application justify the exercise of discretion in favor of bail.

In the case of Ex parte Hoge, 48 Cal. 3, it appears that petitioner had been convicted in a municipal criminal court of the crime of assault made with a deadly weapon with the intent to do bodily injury. The punishment provided by the California statute for the offense was fine or imprisonment, or both. The municipal court had imposed sentence of imprisonment in the state prison for the term of 18 months, and from the judgment petitioner had appealed to the Supreme Court. After taking his appeal, petitioner had appealed to the judge of the municipal court to be admitted to bail pending appeal, and his application had been refused. In that case Mr. Justice Wallace held that it was within the discretion of the court to impose a fine or to adjudge the imprisonment. He says:

"Either would have satisfied the statute which the prisoner had broken. Had the fine alone been imposed, the positive rule of the statute would have permitted him to go upon bail pending an appeal. * * * Yet his offense is the same, whether he be fined or be imprisoned. In case the mere fine had been imposed,

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