Sentence

The judgment formally pronounced by the court or judge upon the defendant utter his conviction in a criminal prosecution, awarding the punishment to be inflicted. The word is properly confined to this meaning. In civil cases, the terms "judgment," "decision," "award," "finding," etc., are used. See Featherstone v. People, 194 III. 325, 62 N. E. 684; State v. Barnes, 24 Fla. 153, 4 South. 560; Pennington v. State, 11 Tex. App. 281; Com. v. Bish off, 13 Pa. Ch Ct. R. 503; People v. Adams, 95 Mich. 541, 55 N. W. 461; Bugbse v. Boyce, 68 Vt 311, 35 All. 330. Ecolesiastical. In ecolesiastical procedure, "sentence" is analogous to "judgment" (q. v.) in an ordinary action. A definite sentence Is one which puts an end to the suit, and regards the principal matter in question. An interlocutory sentence determines only some incidental matter in the proceedings. Phillim. Ecc. Law, 1260.

— Cumulative sentences. Separate sentences (each additional to the others) imposed upon a defendant who has been convicted upon an indictment containing several counts, each of such counts charging a distinct offense, or who is under conviction at the same time for several distinct offenses ; one of such sentences being made to begin at the expiration of another. Carter v. McClaughry, 183 U. S. 365, 22 Sun. Ct. 181, 46 L. Ed. 236; State v. Hamby, 126 N. C. 1066, 35 S. E. 614,

— Final sentence. One which puts an end to a case. Distinguished from interlocutory

— Indeterminate sentence. A form of sentence to imprisonment upon conviction of crime, now authorized by stafute in several states, which, instead of fixing rigidly the duration of the imprisonment, declares that it shall be for a period "not less than" so many years "nor more than" so many years, or not less than the minimum period prescribed by statute as the punishment for the particular offense nor more than the maximum period, the exact length of the term being afterwards fixed, within the limits assigned by the court or the statute, by an executive authority, (the governor, board of pardons, etc.,) on consideration of the previous record of the convict, his behavior while in prison or While out on parole, the apparent prospect of reformation, and other such considerations.

— Interlocutory sentence. In the civil law. A sentence on some indirect question arising from the principal cause. Hal-lifax, Civil Law, b. 3, chi 9, no. 40.

— Sentence of death recorded. In English practice. The recording of a sentence of death, not actually pronounced, on the understanding that it will not be executed. Such a record has the same effect as if the judgment had been pronounced and the offender reprieved by the court. Mozley & Whitley. The practice is now disused.

— Suspension of sentence. This term may mean either a withholding or postponing the sentencing of a prisoner after the conviction, or a postponing of the execution of the sentence after it has been pronounced. In the latter case, it may, for reasons addressing themselves to the. discretion of the court, be indefinite as to time, dr during the good bebavior of the prisoner. See People v. Webster, 14 Misc. Rep. 617, 36 N. Y. Supp. 745 ; In re Buchanan, 146 N. Y. 264, 40 N. E. 883.