Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/167

 UNITKD STATES ». WATKINDS. 155 �grand jury may correct the indictment in this partioular, or the defendant may be prosecuted by information, (section 1Q22 Eev. St. ; U. S. v. Block, 4 Sawy. 211,) it is necessarj^, for the purpose of determiniug wLether he ought to be held to ans#er further, to pass upon the second cause of demurrer. The solution of the question made upon this cause of demurrer lies within a small compass, and depends primarily upon the sig- nification of theterm "conviction" and the phrase "is punish- able," as used in section 3of art. 2of the constitution of the state. The article is devoted tothesubjectof "Suffrage and Elections." The first section only declares, in asomewhat orac- ular manner, without practical definition or limitation, "Ail eleetors shall be free and equal." The second one confera the right to vote upon ail persons who are entitled under any circumstances to exercise that privilege within this State; and the third limits the second, by declaring who shall not be «ntitled to such privilege, and also by what means the privi- lege conferred by said section 2 may be lost. It reads: "No idiot or insane person shall be entitled to the privilege of an, elector; and the privilege of an elector shall be forfeited, by a conviction of any crime which is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary." The argument in support of the demur- rer is to the effect that "conviction" of a crime takes place by the operation or effect of the sentence or judgment of the court determining and imposing the punishment therefor, and that as the defendant was only sentenced to pay a fine of $200, he was therefore not convicted in the state court of a crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary. �The authority cited and mainly relied upon to support this argument is People v. Comell, 16 Cal. 187. The caseis briefly and obscurely reported. It contains a short opinion by Cope and Baldwin, JJ.,each, — Field, J., dissenting, — and relates to an appeal taken by a defendant from a judgment upon his plea of guilty. The authority of the case will he better understood by the following statement of it : The de- fendant was indicted for an assault with intent to commit murder, and pleaded guilty to an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit bodily injury, and was sentenced W ��� �