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211 Tenn. 24

Curtis v. State

Tennessee Supreme Court

Decided November 9, 1962

Tennessee Supreme Court · decided 1962-11-09

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently April 1974

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1962-11-09

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Mr. Chief Justice Prewitt

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶2The defendant below, Curtis, was found guilty of maintaining a public nuisance and ordered to pay a Five Hundred ($500.00) fine and serve six (6) months in jail.

¶3The only assignment of error is directed against the charge of the Court and the form of the verdict and judgment.

¶4In his instructions, the Court read to the jury Code Section 39-2901(4) which defines the crime, and then he stated the substance of Section 39-105 T.C.A., which provides that the punishment upon a finding of guilt would be a fine not to exceed $1,000.00, or imprisonment for not more than eleven months and twenty-nine days, or both in the discretion of the court.

¶5The court instructed the jury that if they found defendant guilty they would fix the punishment at a fine within the amount permitted or a jail sentence within the time permitted, or in their discretion both a fine and jail sentence.

¶6The defendant did not object to any part of the charge, and he requested no special instructions. The record does not reflect that he made a request pursuant to Section 40-2704 T.C.A., that the jury fix the entire punishment.

¶7*26The minute entry states that they found the defendant guilty and fixed his fine at $500.00 and a sentence of six months.

¶8The record also shows that the defendant was found guilty, fined and sentenced as above set out.

¶9The judgment was properly announced by the court. We find no error in the judgment of the lower court and it is affirmed.

Burnett, White and Dyer, Justices, and Tomlinson, Senior Justice, concur.
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