INTRODUCTORY TITLE.

CHAPTER I.

Preamble.

No act of legislation can be, or ought to be immutable. Changes are required by the alteration of circumstances; amendments, by the imperfection of all human institutions; but laws ought never to be changed without great deliberation, and a due consideration as well of the reasons on which they were founded, as of the circumstances under which they were enacted. It is therefore proper, in the formation of new laws, to state clearly the motives for making them, and the principles by which the framers were governed in their enactment. Without a knowledge of these, future legislatures cannot perform the task of amendment, and there can be neither consistency in legislation, nor uniformity in the interpretation of laws.

For these reasons the general assembly of the state of Louisiana declare, that their objects in establishing the following code, are

To remove doubts relative to the authority of any parts of the penal law of the different nations by which this state, before its independence, was governed.

To embody into one law and to arrange into system such of the various prohibitions enacted by different statutes as are proper to be retained in the penal code.

To include in the class of offences, acts injurious to the state and its inhabitants, which are not now forbidden by law.

To abrogate the reference, which now exits, to a foreign law for the definition of offences and the mode of prosecuting them.

To organize a connected system for the prevention as well as for the prosecution and punishment of offences.

To collect into written codes, and to express in plain language, all the rules which it may be necessary to establish, for the protection of the government of the country, and the person, property, condition, and reputation of individuals; the penalties and punishments attached to a breach of those rules; the legal means of preventing offences, and the forms of prosecuting them when committed; the rules of evidence, by which the truth of accusations are to be tested; and the duties of executive and judicial officers, jurors and individuals, in preventing, prosecuting, and punishing offences: to the end that no one need be ignorant of any branch of criminal jurisprudence, which it concerns all to

know.

And to change the present penal laws, in all those points in which they contravene the following principles, which the general assembly consider as fundamental truths, and which they have made the basis of their legislation on this subject, to wit:

Vengeance is unknown to the law. The only object of punishment is to prevent the commission of offences: it should be calculated to operate.

First, on the delinquent, so as by seclusion to deprive him of the present means, and by habits of industry and temperance, of any future desire, to repeat the offence.

Secondly, on the rest of the community, so as to deter them by the example, from a like contravention of the laws. No punishments, greater than are necessary to effect these ends, ought to be inflicted.

No acts or omissions should be declared to be offences, but such as are injurious to the state, to societies permitted by the laws, or to individuals.

But penal laws should not be multiplied without evident necessity; therefore acts, although injurious to individuals or societies, should not be made liable to public prosecution, when they may be sufficiently repressed by private suit.

From the imperfection of all human institutions, and the inevitable errors of those who manage them, it sometimes happens, that the innocent are condemned to suffer the punishment due to the guilty. Punishments should, therefore, be of such a nature that they may be remitted, and as far as possible compensated, in cases where the injustice of the sentence becomes apparent.

Where guilt is ascertained, the punishment should be speedily inflicted.

Penal laws should be written in plain language, clearly and unequivocally expressed, that they may neither be misunderstood nor perverted; they should be so concise, as to be remembered with ease; and all technical phrases, or words they contain, should be clearly defined. They should be promulgated in such a manner as to force a knowledge of their provisions upon the people; to this end, they should not only be published, but taught in the schools; and publicly read on stated

occasions.

The law should never command more than it can enforce. Therefore, whenever, from public opinion, or any other cause, a penal law cannot be carried into execution, it should be repealed.

The accused, in all cases, should be entitled to a public trial, conducted by known rules, before impartial judges and an unbiassed jury; to a copy of the act of accusation against him; to the delay necessary to prepare for his trial; to process to enforce the attendance of his own witnesses; and to an opportunity of seeing, hearing, and examining those who are produced against him; to the assistance of counsel for his defence; to free communication with such counsel, if in confinement, and to be bailed in all cases, except those particularly specified by law. No presumption of guilt, however violent, can justify the infliction of any punishment before conviction, or of any bodily restraint greater than is necessary to prevent escape; and the nature and extent of this restraint should be determined by law.

Perfect liberty should be secured of hearing and publishing a true account of the proceedings of criminal courts, limited only by such re

strictions as morality and decency require ; and no restraint whatsoever should be imposed on the free discussion of the official conduct of the judges and other ministers of justice, in this branch of government.

Such a system of procedure, in criminal cases, should be established as to be understood without long study; it should neither suffer the guilty to escape by formal objections, nor involve the innocent in difficulties, by errors in pleading.

For this purpose, amendments should be permitted in all cases, where neither the accused nor the public prosecutor can be surprised. Those penal laws counteract their own effect, which, through a mistaken lenity, give greater comforts to a convict than those which he would probably have enjoyed, while at liberty.

The power of pardoning should be only exercised in cases of innocence discovered, or of certain and unequivocal reformation.

Provision should be made for preventing the execution of intended offences, whenever the design to commit them is sufficiently apparent. The remote means of preventing offences, do not form the subject of penal laws. The general assembly will provide them in their proper place. They are the diffusion of knowledge, by the means of public education, and the promotion of industry, and consequently of ease and happiness among the people.

Religion is a source of happiness here, and the foundation of our hopes of it hereafter; but its observance can never, without the worst of oppression, form the subject of a penal code. All modes of belief,

and all forms of worship, are equal in the eye of the law; when they interfere with no private or public rights, all are entitled to equal protection in their exercise.

Whatever may be the majority of the professors of one religion or sect in the state, it is a persecution to force any one to conform to any ceremonies, or to observe any festival or day, appropriated to worship by the members of a particular religious persuasion: this does not exclude a general law, establishing civil festivals or periodical cessations from labour for civil purposes unconnected with religious worship, or the appointment of particular days on which citizens of all persuasions should join, each according to the rites of his own religion, in rendering thanks to God for any signal blessing, or imploring his assistance in any public calamity.

The innocent should never be made to participate in the punishment inflicted on the guilty; therefore, no such effects should follow conviction as to prevent the heir from claiming an inheritance through or from the person convicted. Still less should the feelings of nature be converted into instruments of torture, by denouncing punishment against the children, to secure the good conduct of the parent.

Laws intended to suppress a temporary evil should be limited to the probable time of its duration, or carefully repealed after the reason for enacting them has ceased.

CHAPTER II.

Plan and division of the system of penal law.

Art. 1. This system comprises four distinct codes, and a Book of Definitions. The first, called the CODE OF CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS, is divided into two books, containing :-General Principles; and the description of all acts or omissions that are declared to be offences; with the punishment assigned to each.

Art. 2. The second is called the CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. It is divided into two books. It contains the means provided for preventing offences that are apprehended, and for repressing those that exist; and it directs the mode of proceeding for bringing offenders to justice.

Art. 3. The third is the whole law of evidence, applicable as well to civil as to penal cases, and is called the CODE OF EVIDENCE.

Art. 4. The fourth contains a system of prison discipline, in all the stages in which imprisonment is used, either as the means of detention or punishment. It is designated as the CODE OF REFORM AND PRISON DISCIPLINE.

Art. 5. The concluding division of the system is a BOOK OF DEFINITIONS, which defines all the technical words or phrases that are used in the several codes.

CHAPTER III.

Introductory notice.

Art. 6. Whenever the office, trust, state, or relation, of tutor, ward, administrator, executor, ancestor, heir, parent, child, ascendant, descendant, minor, infant, master, or servant, and the relative pronouns, he or they, as referring to them, are used, they are intended to mean as well females as males, standing in those relations, or exercising the same offices, trusts, or duties, unless the contrary be expressed.

Art. 7. The general terms-whoever; any person; any one; and the relative pronouns he or they, when they refer to them, are intended to include females as well as males, unless there is some expression to the contrary. The word man is used in this system, not as a generical term, but to express a person of the male sex, of whatever age. The term woman includes females of every age.

Art. 8. Whenever any thing is forbidden or directed, by using the general terms-any one; one; any person; whoever; or the relative pronoun-he; referring to any such general term, the same prohibition or direction (if the contrary be not expressed) is extended to more persons than one, doing or omitting the same act.

Art. 9. Whenever any thing is directed or forbidden with respect to one object or thing, the same direction or prohibition extends to