State v. Townley

• Decision Date: 20 December 1898
• Citation: 48 S.W. 833,147 Mo. 205
• Parties: STATE v. TOWNLEY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

48 S.W. 833

147 Mo. 205

STATE v. TOWNLEY.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

December 20, 1898.

CONVICTION — PUNISHMENT FOR BOYS.

One is not "convicted" when he pleads guilty, but when judgment is rendered, within Act March 16, 1897, § 5 (Laws 1897, p. 123), declaring that "any boy under the age of 18 years convicted of any other felony" than those punishable by death or imprisonment for 10 years or more, either upon a plea of guilty or upon trial, shall be committed to said reform school.

Appeal from circuit court, Howell county; W. N. Evans, Judge.

George Townley was found guilty of assault with intent to commit rape, and sentenced to the penitentiary, and appeals. Affirmed.

Orchard & Tillman, for appellant. Edward C. Crow, Atty. Gen., and Sam. B. Jeffries, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

BURGESS, J.

Defendant having been indicted in the circuit court of Howell county, Mo., for rape, on the 10th day of July, 1897, he was arraigned under the indictment, and pleaded guilty of assault with intent to commit rape. The court then continued the case under advisement until the 3d day of August next following, at which time the court found that the defendant was under 18 years of age at the time he entered his plea of guilty, but was then over that age, and fixed his punishment at three years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, while defendant insists that he should have been sent to the reform school.

The only question for consideration is whether the court, under the evidence, and its findings from the evidence that defendant was under 18 years of age at the time he committed the assault, and over 18 years of age at the time judgment was rendered and punishment fixed, should have sentenced defendant to the reform school, instead of the penitentiary. The solution of this question depends upon the proper construction to be given to section 5 of an act of the general assembly of the state of Missouri in regard to state institutions, approved March 16, 1897 (page 123 of the Laws of Missouri of 1897), which reads as follows: "Sec. 5. Any boy under the age of eighteen years convicted of a crime, the punishment of which, under the statutes of this state, when committed by persons over the age of eighteen years, is death or imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not less than ten years, may be punished in the same manner and to the same extent as provided by statute for the punishment of persons over the age of eighteen, or he may be imprisoned in the penitentiary or committed to the state reform school for boys for a term of not less than five years; and any boy under the age of eighteen years convicted of any other felony, either upon a plea of guilty or upon trial, shall be committed to the said reform school for boys for a term of not less than two years, nor for a longer term than until such boy shall arrive at the age of twenty-one years. Any boy under eighteen years of age convicted of a misdemeanor, either upon a plea of guilty or upon trial, may, in the discretion of the court, be committed to the said reform school for boys for a term not less than two years, nor for a longer period than until such boy shall arrive at the age of twenty-one years. No boy under eighteen years of age convicted of felony shall hereafter be committed to the county jail as a punishment for such offense."

If the...