Brandon v. State

1. Renal statutes must be strictly construed. Section 319 of the Renal Code of 1910, making it an offense for any person convicted of a misdemeanor to escape from a chain-gang or other place of imprisonment, refers only to persons convicted in State courts and not to those convicted in the Federal courts who may be imprisoned, under the authority of United States officials, in State jails. This is true notwithstanding the provision of section 1152 of the Penal Code of 1910 that if the keeper of a county jail receive as a prisoner a person convicted in a 'Federal court “it shall be under like…