State v. Patnovic

Layton, J.:

At common law, the repeal of a penal statute containing no saving clause was held to constitute a bar to the prosecution and punishment of a crime already committed in violation of the statute so repealed. 22 C. J. S., Criminal Law, § 27(b)'. And there is a large body of respectable authority which has extended this principle to the extreme lengths of including a case such as this where the statute is not repealed but amended and the amendment purports to increase only the punishment. People v. Lowell, 250 Mich. 349, 230 N. W. 202; In re Medley, 134 U. S. 160, 10 S. Ct. 384, 33 L.…