AUTREFOIS CONVICT (Fr. formerly con victed). A plea made by a defendant in dicted Air a crime or misdemeanor, that he has formerly been tried and convicted of the same.
This plea is substantially the same in form as the plea of autrefois acquit, and is grounded on the same principle, viz.. that no man's life or liberty shall be twice put in jeopardy for the same offence; Whart. Cr. Pl. § 435 ; 1 Bish. Cr. Law § 651; State v. Cooper, 13 N. J. L. 361, 25 Am. Dec. 490; U. S. v. Keen, 1 McLean 429, Fed. Cas. No. 15,510 ; State v. Nelson, 7 Ala. 610; State v. Chaffin, 2 Swan (Tenn.) 493; State v. Par-_ ish, 43 Wis. 395.
A plea of autrefois convict, which shows that the judgment on the former indictment has been reversed for error in the judgment, is not a good bar to another indictment for the same offence; Cooley's Const. Lim. 326 ; Territory v. Dorman, 1 Ariz. 56, 25 Pac. 516 ; People v. Schmidt, 64 Cal. 260, 30 Pac. 814 ; State v. Rhodes, 112 N. C. 857, 17 S. E. 164; otherwise, if the reversal were not for in sufficiency in the indictment nor for error at the trial, but for matter subsequent, and dehors both the conviction and the judg ment ; Hartung v. People, 26 N. Y. 167. A
prior conviction before a justice of the Peace, and a performance of the sentence, consti tute a bar to an indictment for the same of fence, although the complaint on which the -justice proceeded was so defective that his judgment might have been reversed for er ror ; Corn. v. Loud, 3 Mete. (Mass.) 328, 37 Am. Dec. 139. Where a person has been con victed for failing to support his wife and be ing disorderly, it is no bar to a second pros ecution on a similar charge, where at the time of the second offence he was not in prison on account of his first sentence ; Peo ple v. Hodgson, 126 N. Y. 647, 27 N. E. 378. Where one has been convicted of an assault but discharged without sentence on giving security for good behavior, he cannot after wards be convicted on an indictment for the same assault; 24 Q. B. Div. 423. See Auvaa rois ACQUIT.