State v. . Yandle

Avery, J.: The boards of commissioners of the several counties have power to provide for employing on the public streets, public highways or pnblic works, of persons committed to jail by any magistrate or judge of a-superior or criminal court having jurisdiction to try the accused upon conviction of any crime or misdemeanor, or upon their failure to enter into bond to keep the peace or for good behavior, or to pay or properly secure the payment of costs or fines. That the authority to make the order complained of was granted by Section 3448 of The Code, and was not withdrawn by any subsequent act, is settled in the well considered opinion of Justice MacRae, in Myers v. Stafford, 114 N. C., 234, 237. There is no force in the contention of the defendant that the order of *879 the commissioners was in the nature of a sentence’Subsequently imposed and was void, because they had no judicial authority, and because if they had been competent to try and sentence originally, a sentence had been already pronounced, and no additional sentence could be imposed after the term when it was entered. The principle upon which the defendant relies is a familiar and fundamental doctrine, which was not disputed by the prosecution. The working of the defendant on the public highway was not in pursuance of a judgment pronounced by the commissioners. It was an incident to the sentence proper, imposed by the court, which the law had declared before conviction, and before the offence was committed, should follow. The order of the commissioners was therefore no more an additional judgment than is an order of the Superintendent of the State Prison that a prisoner confined in a cell at the Penitentiary shall be taken to one of the farms now’ cultivated under his direction. The commissioners were for this purpose only the ministerial agents provided by law for the purpose of managing economically the business of the counties and protecting the people as far as possible against unnecessary cost in the punishment of criminals. A person who commits an assault and battery knows, or is presumed by law to know, the probable legal as well as the natural consequences of his own act. Knowing the law (as we must assume), he knows that the court has the power to imprison upon conviction, and that as an incident the commissioners of the county may, for the protection of the county, order him to be taken out and worked upon the public roads. The principle governing this case is in no sense an ala-góos to that upon which the decision hinged in ex parte Lange, 18 "Wall, 163, 175. The order to work the defendant upon the public roads was in no proper sense a second *880 sentence, imposed after a part of the punishment provided for by an original judgment had been inflicted, but was an incident to the punishment, in contemplation of which he committed the offence. It has been expressly held also, that the provision of Section 3448 of The Code, which forbids the hiring out of convicts except under order of the court embodied in the sentence, applied only to farming out convicts to individuals or corporations, and did “not extend to labor employed upon public works, and under the supervision and control of public agents.” State v. Sneed, 94 N. C., 806. The answer of the respondent was sufficient to show that the prisoner was detained by lawful authority, and we are of opinion, therefore, that there was no error in the order remanding him to the custody of James Howie. No Error.