Opinion
No. 35,273.
December 1, 1950.
Criminal law — statute defining crime as gross misdemeanor — failure to state place of imprisonment — place of commitment.
Where a statute defines a crime as a gross misdemeanor and prescribes imprisonment as punishment therefor, without fixing the place of such imprisonment, commitment must be to the county jail rather than to the state prison or the reformatory.
Defendant was convicted in the district court for Douglas county of the crime of issuing a check without sufficient funds. From the judgment sentencing him to the state reformatory, E. J. Ruegemer, Judge, defendant appealed. Reversed with directions to trial court to impose a proper and lawful sentence, following State v. Masteller, 232 Minn. 196, 45 N.W.2d 109.
Thornton Thornton, for appellant.
J. A. A. Burnquist, Attorney General, and Ralph A. Stone, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.
The facts in this case are identical with those in State v. Masteller, 232 Minn. 196, 45 N.W.2d 109, filed herewith, except that defendant here was sentenced to imprisonment in the state reformatory. The same law is applicable to both, and decision in this case is governed by the opinion in the Masteller case.
Reversed and remanded to the district court with instructions to impose a proper and lawful sentence.