People v. Smith

Introduction

The primary issue in this case is whether offenses defined in the Penal Code as misdemeanors punishable by up to two years in prison may be considered "felonies” for the purposes of the habitual-offender, probation, and consecutive sentencing provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, where the code defines "felony” as an offense punishable by more than one year in the state prison. Two-year misdemeanors, of course, fall within the Code of Criminal Procedure’s definition of felony.

*434The plain language of the statutes involved, considered in light of the purposes sought to be…