United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Brede v. Powers, 263 U.S. 4 (1923)

Brede v. Powers

No. 45

Argued October 4, 1923

Decided October 22, 1923

263 U.S. 4

Syllabus

1. The sections of the Revised Statutes governing the places in which sentences of imprisonment for crime may be executed are in pari materia, and should be construed together. P. 263 U. S. 11.

2. The power of the district court to sentence to imprisonment in another state, in a penal institution designated by the Attorney General under Rev.Stats. § 5546, is not confined to cases in which the imprisonment is for more than a year or at hard labor (§§ 5541, 5542), but exists also where the sentence is for imprisonment merely, for a year or less. Id.

3. Under § 21 of Title II of the National Prohibition Act, which declares any building, boat, vehicle, place, etc., where intoxicating liquor is manufactured, sold, kept, or bartered in violation of that title to be a common nuisance, and provides that any person maintaining such nuisance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, the imprisonment imposed cannot be at hard labor or in a penitentiary, and the offense, not being infamous, may be prosecuted by information. P. 263 U. S. 12.

4. A law of New Jersey (1917, c. 271) authorizing the board of chosen freeholders of any county to "cause to be employed" within the county any or all prisoners in any county jail construed as not contemplating the requirement of labor as a punishment. P. 263 U. S. 13.

279 F.1d 7 affirmed.

Page 263 U. S. 5

Appeal from an order of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York discharging a writ of habeas corpus which had been sued out by the appellant to try the constitutionality of his sentence and commitment by that court to the Essex County Jail, New Jersey -- a place designated by the Attorney General pursuant to Rev.Stats. § 5546. The sentence was based upon a conviction under an information which charged a violation of § 21 of Title II of the National Prohibition Act, 41 Stat. 314.

Page 263 U. S. 9