Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/168

 156 FEOBBAIi BEPOBTEB. �pay a fine of $1,200, or be imprisoned in the county jail. The crime of which the defendant was convicted by his plea of guilty was punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or by fine, or both ; and by the law of the state any crime "punishable by death or imprisonment in a state prison" was a felony. Hittell's Laws, §§ 1452, 1592, By the constitu- tion of the state, article 6, § e, (Hittell's Laws, 35,) it was provided that the supreme court of the state should have appellate jurisdiction "in ail criminal cases amounting to a felony." �Counsel for the state moved to dismiss the appeal, and the motion turned upon the decision of the question, whether the defendant's right to an appeal depended upon the nature of the crime charged in the indietment or confessed by his plea of guilty, or the punishment imposed upon him by the sen- tence of the court. The court held that the defendant having been sentenced as for a misdemeanor, an appeal would not lie from such judgment, because its appellate jurisdiction was limited to a "case amounting to felony." The court consid- ered the case on the appeal, as one of misdemeanor, and therefore not within its appellate jurisdiction. �It is truethat in the opinions of the judges the terms "convic- tion" and "judgment" are used indiscriminately, and the pun- ishment inflicted is spoken of as determining the grade of the offence. But these expressions must be taken and considered with reference to the question before the court, which was whether a judgment as for a misdemeanor was a case of fel- ony within the meaning of that clause in the constitution giving it appellate jurisdiction "in ail criminal cases amount- ing to felony;" and the answer was in the negative, because, so far as the defendant was concerned, the right to an appeal depended upon the nature of the resuit as to him, and not the charge. �In the same way section 22 of the judiciary act, (1 St. 84; Eev. St. § 691,) giving the supreme court appellate jurisdic- tion over the judgments of the circuit courts in actions where "the matter in dispute" exceeds in value a certain sum, bas been construed so that, upon the appeal of the defendant, ��� �