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CODE

OF

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

AN ACT

To establish a Code of Criminal Procedure.

The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

§ 1. This act shall be known as THE CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. It is divided into eight parts.

The first embraces general definitions and provisions. The second relates to the courts having original jurisdiction of criminal actions.

The third relates to the prevention of public offences. The fourth relates to proceedings for the removal of public officers by impeachment or otherwise.

The fifth relates to the proceedings in criminal actions prosecuted by indictment.

The sixth relates to proceedings in the police courts. The seventh relates to special proceedings.

The eighth relates to costs in criminal proceedings. [FOURTH REP.]

1

PART I.

General Definitions and Provisions.

§ 2. A crime or public offence is an act or omission forbidden by laws, and to which is annexed, upon conviction, either of the following punishments:

1. Death:

2. Imprisonment :

3. Fine:

4. Removal from office: or

5. Disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under this state.

§3. Public offences are divided into,

1. Felonies, and

2. Misdemeanors.

§ 4. A felony is a public offence, punishable with death, or which is, or in the discretion of the court may be, punishable by imprisonment in a state prison.

§ 5. Every other public offence is a misdemeanor.

§ 6. No person can be punished for a public offence, except upon legal conviction in a court having jurisdiction thereof.

§ 7. Every public offence must be prosecuted by indictment, except

1. Where proceedings are had for the removal of a civil officer of the state, on an impeachment by the assembly, for wilful or corrupt misconduct in office:

2. Where proceedings are had for the removal of justices of the peace, and judges and justices of inferior courts not of record, and their clerks:

3. Offences arising in the militia when in actual service; and in the land and naval forces in time of war, or which this state may keep with the consent of congress, in time of peace:

4. Petit larceny charged as a first offence :

5. Assault and battery not charged to have been committed riotously, or upon a public officer in the execution of his duties:

6. Poisoning, killing, maiming, wounding or cruelly beating an animal :

7. Racing animals within one mile of the place where a court is held:

8. Committing a wilful trespass, or severing any produce or article from the freehold, not amounting to grand larceny :

9. Selling poisonous substances, not labelled as required by statute :

10. Maliciously removing, altering, defacing or cutting down monuments or marked trees:

11. Maliciously breaking, destroying or removing mile stones, mile boards or guide boards, or altering an inscription thereon:

§ 8. The proceeding by which a party charged with a public offence is accused and brought to trial and punishment, shall be known as a criminal action.

§ 9. A criminal action is prosecuted in the name of the people of the state of New-York as a party, against the party charged with the offence.

§ 10. The party prosecuted in a criminal action is designated in this Code as the defendant.

§ 11. In a criminal action, the defendant is entitled, 1. To a speedy and public trial:

2. To be allowed counsel, as in civil actions; or he may appear and defend in person and with counsel; and,

3. To produce witnesses on his behalf, and to be confronted with the witnesses against him in the presence of the court; except that where the charge has been preliminarily examined before a committing magistrate, and the testimony reduced by him to the form of a deposition, in the presence of the defendant, who has, either in pers n or by counsel, cross-examined, or had an opportunity to cross-examine the witness; or, where the testimony of a witness on the part of the people, who is unable to give security for his appearance, has been taken conditionally according to sections 210 to 212, both inclusive, the deposition of the witness may be read, upon its being satisfactorily shown to the court that he is dead or insane, or cannot with due diligence be found within the state.

§ 12. No person shall be subject to a second prosecution for a public offence, for which he has once been prosecuted and duly convicted or acquitted.

§ 13. No person shall be compelled, in a criminal action, to be a witness against himself; nor shall a person charged with a public offence, be subjected before conviction, to any more restraint than is necessary for his detention to answer the charge.

§ 14. No person can be convicted of a public offence, where he is entitled to a trial by jury, unless by the verdict of a jury accepted and recorded by the court, or upon a plea of guilty, or upon judgment against him on a demurrer to the indictment in the case mentioned in section 362.

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