Summary Conviction

A phrase applied to proceedings which result in the sentence of an accused person without jury trial. At common law it was applied only in cases of contempt. Such proceedings are now frequently provided for by statute, either for trial by a court without a jury, or a final disposition of criminal cases by the committing magistrate. Such statutes are, in derogation of the right of trial by jury, secured by the state and federal constitutions and therefore must provide a right of appeal to a court having a jury. They usually apply only to lesser offences and to hardened offenders. Summary proceedings as enumerated by Blackstone comprehend: 1. All trials of offences and frauds contrary to the laws of the excise and other branches of revenue which are to be determined by the commissioners of the respective departments and justices of the peace in the country; such convictions are absolutely necessary for due collection of the public money. 2. Convictions before Justices of the peace in order to inflict divers swearing, drunkenness, vagrancy, idleness, etc. 3. Attachments for contempt and the subsequent proceedings thereon. 4 Bla. Com. 280. See Summary Proceeding; Conviction.

The conviction of a person, (usually for a minor misdemeanor,) as the result of his trial before a magistrate or court, without the intervention of a jury, which is authorized by statute in England and in many of the states. In these proceedings there is no intervention of a jury, but the party accused is acquitted or condemned by the suffrage of such Eerson only as the statute has appointed to be ls judge. A conviction reached on such a magistrate's trial is called a "summary conviction." Brown; Blair v. Com., 25 Grat. (Vat) 853.

Defined under Conviction in Black's Law Dictionary.