THE

PENAL CODE

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK.

REPORTED COMPLETE

BY THE

COMMISSIONERS OF THE CODE.

ALBANY:

WEED, PARSONS & CO., PRINTERS.

1865.

PRELIMINARY NOTE.

THIS Code, containing a proposed system of Penal Law for the State of New York, has been prepared by the Commissioners of the Code, pursuant to the directions contained in the act of the Legislature by which they were appointed. A draft of the work has been distributed as required by that act,* and many alterations and amendments have been introduced into the present reprint. A title containing a full system of provisions for the management of state prisons and county jails, has been added to the original draft; and the whole is now ready for the consideration of the Legislature.

In compiling the system of Penal Law embodied in this Code, the following have been the leading objects of the Commissioners:

1. To bring within the compass of a single volume the whole body of the law of crimes and punishments in force within this state. The existing statute law of crimes, though comprehensive, does not abrogate rules of the com

*The act referred to is chapter 266 of the Laws of 1857. It directs the Commissioners to prepare three Codes; the POLITICAL CODE, the CIVIL CODE, and the PENAL CODE. It provides that the Penal Code must define all the crimes for which persons can be punished, and the punishment for the same; and that neither of the Codes shall embrace any provisions concerning actions or special proceedings, civil or criminal, or the law of evidence. The act further directs that whenever the Commissioners shall have prepared either Code, they shall cause it to be distributed among judges and other competent persons for examination, after which the Commissioners shall re-examine their work and consider such suggestions as have been made to them; and that they shall then cause the Codes, as finally agreed upon, to be reprinted and again distributed, six months before being presented to the Legislature.