9 Haw. 428 | Haw. | 1894
Opinion of the Court, by
The defendant was first charged in the District Court of Kawaihau, Island of Kauai, with larceny (in the 4th degree) by stealing a redwood board valued at $1.50, to which charge be pleaded guilty, and was sentenced by tbe magistrate to imprisonment at hard labor for six months and costs $3, this being tbe maximum penalty prescribed by tbe statute. The defendant appealed to tbe Circuit Court, of tbe Fifth Judicial Circuit, and the matter came on at the March Term, 1894, of said Court. The Deputy Attorney-General made the following motion : “ And now comes the Attorney-General by his deputy G. K. Wilder, and moves that tbe appeal in tbe above entitled case be dismissed for that (1) defendant having-pleaded guilty in the district court to the charge oí larceny no appeal lies from tbe judgment of said court, the sentence being legal, it being an appeal without a jury.
The King vs. Abigail Maikai, 6 Haw., p. 145.
The King vs. Yok Lau, 7 Haw., p. 584.
The Queen vs. Fernandez, 8 Haw., p. 273.
This right is not only recognized in our own courts, but it is also recognized in United States and English courts. In the case of The People vs. Richmond, 57 Mich., p. 403, we find it reeognize'd; also in the case of the Queen vs. The Justices of Surrey and Bell, Law Rep. Queen’s Bench Division, Vol. 2, p. 719. In that case an appeal was taken against a summary conviction, and the only ground stated in the notice of appeal was that the punishment inflicted was excessive, and the appellate court entertained the appeal.
A plea of guilty is always considered by the court in imposing the penalty; in the case at bar, the court does not seem to have considered this, but sentenced the defendant to the highest penalty allowed by the law, viz., six months imprisonment at hard labor. The value of the property stolen was only alleged to be $1.50; under these circumstances it appears to us that the punishment was excessive. This is just one of those cases that illustrates how very unjust it would be to deprive a defendant of appealing for mitigation of sentence.
The next question is as to “ the notice of appeal as required by law has not been filed.” It is required by law that a written notice of appeal shall be filed by the party appealing; Sec. 68, Chap. 57, Laws 1892. It is claimed by the prosecution that this was not done according to law, as the notice is signed by the magistrate and not by the defendant. We find on the back of the certificate of appeal, a printed form of the notice of appeal, which is filled out in the handwriting of the magistrate and signed by him on the line where the defendant should have signed: but on the same paper near this signature we find some Japanese characters, which on investigation we find to be the name of the defendant, presumably written by himself. Under the circumstances we
The case is remanded to the Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, to entertain the appeal.