# Brown v. People

> Michigan Supreme Court · June 18, 1878 · 39 Mich. 57

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/7928974

## Case

- **Full name:** William Brown v. The People
- **Court:** Michigan Supreme Court
- **Decided:** June 18, 1878
- **Citations:** 39 Mich. 57; 1878 Mich. LEXIS 203
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Opinion of the court by Cooley
- **Judges:** Campbell, Cooley, Graves, Marston
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/7928974

## Opinion text

Cooley, J.
In Nelson v. The People, 38 Mich., 618 , disposed of at the last term, I expressed the opinion that where a party is convicted in a court of record of an offense for which he might have been tried in justice’s court, it was not competent for the court to impose upon him a sentence more severe than could have been imposed had he been tried in justice’s court. This case is one of that class; the offense being assault and battery, and the punishment for that offense, when imposed by a justice of the peace, being limited to three months.
The sentence imposed by the Recorder is of imprisonment for one year. By statute — Comp. L., § 7998 — a sentence merely excessive is to be reversed for the excess only, and this should therefore be affirmed as a sentence for three months only, and reversed as to the remainder.
Campbell, C. J., concurred.
Graves, J.
Whilst 1 am not clear that the view here taken is correct, I am not prepared to say it is wrong, .and therefore I concur.
Marston, J., concurred.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/7928974. Public record. Not legal advice.