Ex parte Ellis

The judgment of the Justice of the Peace, as appears by the transcript from his minutes, is in the following words: “ Defendant brought into court at his special instance and request, and pleaded guilty as charged in the cbmplaint; and having waived the legal time for sentence, whereupon the Court doth order and adjudge that the defendant be fined in the sum of *205 three hundred dollars, ($300) and in default of the payment of said fine, that said defendant be and is hereby committed to the Sheriff of Fresno County, and by said Sheriff imprisoned in the county jail of said county not exceeding three hundred days.”

Section 1205 of the Penal Code reads: “A judgment that the defendant pay a fine, may also direct that he be imprisoned until the fine be satisfied; specifying the extent of the imprisonment, which must not exceed one day for every dollar of the fine.”

The Court does not adjudge that the defendant has failed to pay the fine, and thereupon direct that he be imprisoned three hundred days; and it is perfectly manifest that, when the judgment was being pronounced, the Court could not have known that the fine would not be paid. The language imports that he shall be…