Penal code

“ What organization was provided for the enforcement of order, and for the protection of life and property? For its first line of defence England trusted to the supposed deterrent effect of a rigorous penal code; the more humane and effectual method, prevention, being lost sight of in the mistaken belief that it was possible to extirpate crime by the severity with which it was punished, a belief that survived in face of the fact, that as punishment increased in bitterness, so did offences grow in frequency and in violence. ”

“ The French codes have been improved upon by later European codes, and more especially by the Italian penal code. All European codes have an opening chapter where the general principles of criminal law in its practical application are enunciated, such as, for instance, the rules that— (1) no person is liable to punishment for any act not expressly declared to be an offence; (2) no person can be punished for an act which by virtue of a subsequent law is declared not to be an offence ”

“ People who object to jury-service for the enforcement of a penal code which is against their conscience, are frequently excused without fine or penalty. The same allowance would probably be made to excuse any one opposed to capital punishment from assuming the office of hangman. ”

“ When the severity of the penal code was mitigated, it still remained unfashionable to prosecute, partly from force of habit, partly because the public which had no confidence in the police, would not willingly incur the trouble and danger of taking an active part in the administration of justice, but chiefly because the expense of putting the law in motion was prohibitive for all but the comparatively [288] wealthy. ”

“ The third proposition of the positive school in regard to individual guarantees, which was also advanced by M. Puglia, is connected with reform of the penal code, and especially with the more effectual indemnification of the victims of crime. The object is to prune the long and constantly increasing list of crimes, offences, and contraventions of all acts which result in slight injury, committed by occasional offenders, or ``pseudo- criminals''—that is, by normal persons acting merely with negligence or imprudence. ”

“ Moreover, the Penal Code imports into the definition of nearly every crime, and, therefore, into the charge on which the accused is tried, words the purport of which is to describe the state of mind of the accused at the time the alleged act was committed, thereby making it necessary to ascertain at the trial what that state of mind was. ”

“ Even setting this crucial historical evidence aside, and proceeding as the Court does, by looking to dictionary definitions, chapter 73 of the Federal Criminal Code, state statutes, and the Model Penal Code, the same result emerges: Core obstruction of justice requires a pending investigation or proceeding. ”

“ Because the designation of conditions for supervision of behaviour of offenders for whom courts have suspended the designation of punishment or suspended the imposition of punishment in accordance with the current Penal Code is still not suitable for the rectification of those offenders in order to efficaciously enable them to reform themselves, it is appropriate to improve the conditions for supervision of behaviour of the offenders in the described events by broadening their scope, so that the courts would be able to exercise their discretion as suitable for each case. ”

“ Section 19 of the Criminal Code condemns as a criminal offense any conspiracy to injure a citizen in the exercise 'of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States'. Section 20 makes it a penal offense for anyone who, 'acting under color of any law' 'willfully subjects, or causes to be subjected, any inhabitant of any State * * * to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States'. ”

“ Those involving crimes on usurpation of authority, rank, title, and improper use of names, uniforms and insignia as defined and penalized in the Revised Penal Code, including those penalized under Republic Act No. 493.
10. Those involving certain crimes committed by public officers as defined and penalized under the Revised Penal Code, provided that civil courts and military tribunals shall have concurrent jurisdiction thereon if the accused is a civilian, namely:
a. Knowingly rendering unjust judgment (Art. 204) b. Judgment rendered thru negligence (Art. 205) c. ”

“ SUHAKAM referred to recent amendments to the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code which led to positive changes, such as eliminating confessionary statements; detailed procedures for body searches; requiring public prosecutors to provide trial documents before trial to defence counsel; requiring remand periods to be in accordance with the severity of the crime ”

“ The infractions of this decree, not included in Articles first and sixth of the decree of February 16th last, will make the offenders liable to the penalties named in Article 36, of the law of the 23rd of April, 1870.
5th. All persons referred to in Article 14 of the Penal Code of the Peninsula, which is in force in this Island, will be held responsible for said infractions in the same order as established by the said Article.
6th. Whenever a newspaper has twice incurred the penalty of said offense, and shall give cause for a third penalty, it may be then suppressed. ”

“ The conclusion, therefore, would seem to be, that a short simple code, with every punishment attached to every offence, with every motive for aggravation of punishment stated, and on so moderate a scale that no discretion for its mitigation should be necessary, would be the means best calculated to give to penal laws their utmost value as preventives of crime, though experience proves that as such preventives their place is a purely secondary one in a really good system of legislation. ”

“ The careless nurse is a criminal and may be confined in a penitentiary; while perhaps a man who may be guilty of a great iniquity and known to be so drives nonchalantly off in his coach and four.
What is crime? We may well ask the question, only eventually to be confronted by that illuminating definition with which begins the Penal Code—"A crime is an act or omission forbidden by law and punishable upon conviction by ... ”

“ If no specific penal law can be directly applied to this act, then it shall be punished according to the law whose underlying spirit can be most readily applied to the act.” [24]
At the same time, the following articles were added to the code of criminal procedure:
“Article 170a—If an act deserves punishment according to the sound sentiment of the people, but is not declared punishable in the code, the prosecution must investigate whether the underlying principle of a penal law can be applied to the act and whether justice can be helped to triumph by the proper application of this penal law. ”

“ Upon that system, it would be necessary to form, not only a particular code for every individual, but a new penal law for every crime. Men, often with the best intention, do the greatest injury to society, and with the worst do it the most essential services. ”

“ Section3.The stipulations of section 252 of the Penal Code shall be repealed and replaced by the following stipulations:
"Section252.⁠Whoever acts negligently and thereby causes death to another person shall be punished with imprisonment of not over seven years and a fine of not over five thousand baht." ”

“ It is appropriate to amend section 271 anew by designating the offence under the mentioned section as an uncompoundable offence, so that competent officials of the State would be empowered to arrest those who commit the said offence, without having to obtain complaints from injured persons; and it is appropriate to heighten the punishment for this offence so as to daunt offenders. ”

“ Lawes the simplest and the shortest Penal Code that ever nation had, providing broadly for every crime in the calendar, with penalties ranging from a fine of a plaited straw hat to a maximum of six months' labour on the roads. The omission was criminal assault upon children—a crime unknown in Niué, Mr. ”

“ The only mention of informations in the first crimes act of the United States is in the clause providing that no person 'shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished, for an offense not capital, nor for any fine or forfeiture under any penal statute, unless the indictment or information for the same shall be found or instituted within two years from the time of committing the offense, or incurring the fine or forfeiture.' Act April 30, 1790, c. ”

“ Our criminal code, artificial and indiscriminating as it is, is the growth of ages and is the result of the notion that society ought to take vengeance upon the criminal, at least that it ought to punish him, and that the judge, the interpreter of the criminal law, was not only the proper person to determine the guilt of the accused, by the aid of the jury, but was the sole person to judge of the amount of punishment he should receive for his crime. ”

“ The basis of the 3d section of the act of 1825 was the 11th section of a bill drawn by Mr. Justice Story, and of such 11th section its author said (Life of Justice Story, Boston, 1851, vol. 1, p. 293) :
'This is the most important section of the whole bill. The criminal Code of the United States is singularly defective and inefficient . . . Few, very few, of the practical crimes (if I may so say) are now punishable by statutes, and if the courts have no general common-law jurisdiction (which is a vexed question) , they are wholly dispunishable. ”

“ We are dealing here with a criminal statute, the penalties of which circumscribe personal freedom. Before we sanction the imposition of such penalties no doubts should exist as to the statutory proscription of the acts in question. Otherwise individuals are punished without having been adequately warned as to those actions which subjected them to liability.
It is doubtful whether an arrest not followed by actual peonage clearly and unmistakably falls within the prohibition of § 269 of the Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C.A. § 444. ”

“ The very definition of a penal statute is that it is a statute which inflicts a penalty for the violation of its provisions. It is admitted in the opinion of the majority of the court that the offences designated in the act might be prosecuted by information or indictment, an admission which seems to me to be inconsistent with the position that the act is not penal. ”

“ It will be a seasonable occasion also for inquiring how far legislative interposition maybe further requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated in the Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to the wisdom of Congress whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases penalties which were adopted into it antecedent to experiment and examples which justify and recommend a more lenient policy. ”

“ Any person speaking in derogation of the Book, or interrupting its use, or causing a minister to use any other form, is for the first offence to forfeit ten pounds, for a second offence twenty pounds; on a third occasion he is to forfeit all his goods and chattels and suffer imprisonment for life. These penalties are to be enforced by judges of assize, proceeding in the manner customary on indictment for trespass.
What have we here? A purely penal statute, imposing the crushing penalties usual at the time. My purpose is to show the relation of the statute to the Book of Common Prayer. ”

“ Whosoever shall maliciously send, deliver, or utter, or directly or indirectly cause to be received, knowing the Contents thereof, any Letter or Writing threatening to kill or murder any Person, shall be guilty of Felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for any Term not exceeding Ten Years and not less than Three Years,—or to be imprisoned for any Term not exceeding Two Years, with or without Hard Labour, and with or without Solitary Confinement, and, if a Male under the Age of Sixteen Years, with or without Whipping. ”

“ That the terms of a penal statute creating a new offense must be sufficiently explicit to inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part will render them liable to its penalties is a well-recognized requirement, consonant alike with ordinary notions of fair play and the settled rules of law; and a statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application violates the first essential of due process of law. ”

“ Section 3115 bears the caption 'Penalties' and provides that anyone violating any of the provisions of 'this part' for which offense a special penalty is not prescribed 'shall be liable, for the first offense, to a penalty of not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or both * * *.' The two sections are included within the same 'part' of the Code. ”

“ So, in the same act, a person, who, having knowledge of the commission of murder, or other felony, on the high seas, or within any fort, arsenal, dock-yard, magazine, or other place, or district of country within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, shall conceal the same, &c. he shall be adjudged guilty of misprision of felony, and shall be adjudged to be imprisoned, &c. It is clear, that congress cannot punish felonies generally; and, of consequence, cannot punish misprision of felony. ”

“ And, if we free our minds from the notion that criminal statutes must be construed by some artificial and conventional rule, the natural inference, when a statute prescribes two independent penalties, is that it means to inflict them so far as it can, and that, if one of them is impossible, it does not mean, on that account, to let the defendant escape. ”