FINE. In criminal law, a pecuniary mulct ur punishment imposed by a eompetent upon an offender convicted of a crime or misde meanor. The term into use in England during the reign of Edward 1., when it beeame common for a court to sentence :1 culprit to a, short term of imprisonment and then to allow him to "make line," that is, to make an end /occur) to his imprisonment by paying into court a. certain sun) of money. At the 1/111 "Wt. this was considered a sort of bargain to end his imprisonment, and not as an infliction of a pecuniary penalty. as the judges desired to avoid the possibility of the pi-active confused with that of amereement (q.v.), whirl' must be fixed by the assessment of the offender's peers.
The practice of allowing a culprit convicted of a trivial offense thus to have his option of fine or imprisonment prevails to a large extent at the present time. This is true especially in the punishment of misdemeanors, the penal statutes usually prescribing as the punishinent a short term of imprisonment or a moderate line, in the discretion of the court. ln the less aggravated
eases the magistrates usually impose the tine. but if the culprit is unable to pay the amount he is remanded to prison, and a certain amount of his fine is considered as discharged for each day of confinement. For example, in New York if a magistrate imposed a fine of $10, on default of payment the culprit would be confined in a penal institution for ten days, his fine being eonsid ered as reduced $1 each day. It is provided in the united St acs Constitution ( Eighth Amend ment) that "excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed." This doe.. not set any definite limitation on the power of Congress to impose such pecuniary penalties as may seem expedient, but it affords grounds for attacking the constitutionality of a statute which seems oppressive in this particular, and thus makes the legislative act subject to review by the courts. which is our great safeguard. _Many of the Sthtes have inserted similar provisions in their constitutions. See AMERCEMENT ; FORFEITURE: PENALTY,.