138 Ga. 489 | Ga. | 1912
The construction of a State statute is a matter for the State courts, and the Federal courts will accept the construction so made by the State courts. Cargill v. Minnesota, 180 U. S. 452 (21 Sup. Ct. 423, 45 L. ed. 619). Whether the statute is violative of some provision of the constitution of the United States furnishes ground for jurisdiction in the Supreme Court of the United States. The question propounded by the Court of Appeals covers both section 715 and section 716 of the Penal Code. These two sections were codified from different sections of the act of 1903 (Acts 1903, p. 90). Section 715 provides that certain things shall constitute a misdemeanor. Section 716 provides that proof of certain things, comprehended by the preceding section, shall be deemed “presumptive evidence of the intent” therein mentioned. The first specified section deals with a substantive offense; the second deals with a rule of evidence in proving the commission of the offense. It is a well-settled rule of constitutional law that if two parts of an act, or two laws Or sections of the code in regard to the same subject-matter, are 'severable in character, so that one may exist and carry out the legislative intent independently of the other, the holding of one to be invalid will not necessarily result in declaring the other invalid. The two designated sections are severable, and the former can stand independently of the latter; and hence, the offense declared by section 715 may exist, and that section be a constitutional and valid law, whether or not section 716 is constitutional. Latson v. Wells, 13Ga. 681 (71 S. E. 1052).
This court has several times construed section 715. It has uniformly been held that the offense therein declared was not for failure to perform service or pay debts, but was for fraudulently procuring money, or other thing of value; that the fraudulent conduct of the defendant was the gist of the crime, not merely his failure to perform his contract. Lamar v. State, 120 Ga. 312 (47 S. E. 958); Lamar v. Prosser, 121 Ga. 153 (7), 154 (48 S. E. 977); Vinson v. State, 124 Ga. 19 (2), 21 (52 S. E. 79); Townsend v. State, 124 Ga. 69 (52 S. E. 293); Banks v. State, 124 Ga. 15 (4), 17 (52 S. E. 74, 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1007); Sterling v. State, 126 Ga. 92 (54 S. E. 921); Vance v. State, 128 Ga. 661 (57 S. E. 889); Dyas v. State, 126 Ga. 557 (55 S. E. 488); Latson v. Wells, supra. Substantially the same distinction is well-recog
The right of the accused to make a statement will be further mentioned while discussing the next section. It is sufficient at this time to say that the mere fact that a person accused of crime is not allowed to testify as a witness in this State does not prevent him from being convicted of crime. See Vance v. State, supra. If it did, the whole Penal Code might as well be declared unconstitutional. At common law the accused could not testify, but it could not be contended that his conviction would on that account be violative of the guarantee of due process of law contained in Magna Charta. To attempt by penal law to compel a person to render service to another involuntarily may constitute peonage; but it is not peonage for the State to punish one by compelling him to serve the State as a punishment for his crime committed
We now come to consider section 716 of the Penal Code. This provides that satisfactory proof of the contract, the procuring thereon of money, or other thing of value, the failure to perform the service so 'contracted for, or failure to return the money so advanced with interest thereon at the time the labor was to be performed; without good and sufficient cause, and loss or damage to .the hirer, “shall be deemed presumptive evidence of the intent referred to in the preceding section.” There are many eases recognized in the law in which presumptions arise from proof of certain facts, or where proof of certain facts constitutes presumptive evidence of criminal intent. Proof of possession of stolen property shortly after the theft, if unexplained, may authorize a finding of guilty intent on the part of the possessor; proof of the killing of a human being, without any evidence tending to show justification or mitigation, will authorize a presumption of malice. At common law, evidence that a passenger was injured by the breaking of the vehicle of the hirer, or defect in his road, was sufficient to authorize a presumption of negligence. Under statutes, proof of injury by a carrier is sometimes declared sufficient to raise a presumption of negligence. Numerous illustrations might be given where the legislature has declared that proof of certain facts is sufficient to raise a presumption of guilty intent •or like elements of a crime. See instances cited in Banks v. State, supra. If such legislative provisions are not “purely arbitrary, and there is a rational relation between the two facts, and the accused is not deprived of a proper opportunity to submit all the facts bearing upon the issue, it has been held that such statutes do not violate the requirements of due process of law.” Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U. S. 219, 238 (31 Sup. Ct. 145, 55 L. ed. 191), and citations; see also Banks v. State, supra. In the case of Bailey v. Alabama, supra, a law of the State of Alabama was under consideration. As it originally stood in the code, the section provided that any peráon who, with intent to injure or defraud his employer, entered into a written contract for service, and thereby obtained from his employer money, or other personal property, and, with like intent, and without just cause, and without refunding the money or paying for the property, refused to perform the service,
While peonage and enforced performance of labor contracts were discussed at length, the actual ruling, as shown both by the syllabus and the opinion, was that the section of the Code of Alabama, as amended, “in so far as it makes the refusal or failure to perform labor contracted for, without refunding the money or paying for property received, prima facie evidence of the commission of the crime defined by such section, and when read in connection with the rule of evidence of that State, that the accused can not testify in regard to uncommunicated motives, is unconstitutional as in conflict with the thirteenth amendment and of the legislation authorized by it and enacted by Congress.” Pages 220, 228, 245.
There are several material differences between the law of Alabama, then under consideration, and the law of this State, as heretofore construed by this court. In the first place, the Alabama statute provided that “Any person who with intent to injure or defraud his employer,” etc. We do not stop to discuss whether the mere intent to injure may be different from the intent to defraud. Under that statute one half of the fine went to the employer, thus compensating or benefiting him by convicting the accused, so that the punishment in part operated to reimburse or repay the debt of the employer .and reduce his loss. The ruling did not rest entirely upon the statute, but also upon the rule of evidence that the accused could not testify in his own behalf explanatory of his uncommunieated intent. The statute of this State does not contain such a provision, and the prisoner has greater latitude in regard to proving the intent with which he acted. , Under the statute of this State (Penal Code, § 716), in order to constitute “presumptive evidence of the intent,” satisfactory proof of the contract, the procuring thereon of money, or other thing of value, the failure to perform the service so contracted for, or failure to return the money so advanced, with interest thereon, at the time the labor was to be performed, without good and sufficient cause, and loss or damage to the hirer, is necessary. The accused may show that there was good and sufficient cause, as well as negative the other
Having already held that section 715 was not invalid, and now holding that section 716 is not invalid, the two rulings together answer in the negative the question propounded by the Court of Appeals.