Limit beyond which imprisonment shall not extend if fine not paid.

- To enforce the payment of a fine, the court may imprison the defendant and it is not error to express in the sentence a limit beyond which the imprisonment shall not extend, if the fine is not paid. Brock v. State, 22 Ga. 98 (1857).

Imprisonment is not part of penalty. McMeekin v. State, 48 Ga. 335 (1873).

Effect of alternative sentence.

- If a sentence with the alternative of a fine has been imposed in a misdemeanor case, the defendant has the right, as a matter of law, to pay, within a reasonable time, the money required by that part of the sentence. Dunaway v. Hodge, 127 Ga. 690, 55 S.E. 483 (1906).

Discharge upon payment of fine.

- Upon payment or tender of a fine to the sheriff of the county within a reasonable time, the defendant is entitled to be discharged from any further custody under the sentence. Abram v. Maples, 10 Ga. App. 137, 72 S.E. 932 (1911).

Sheriff discharging prisoner before payment.

- If the sheriff discharges the prisoner, taking the promise of another to pay the fine, the sheriff could not afterward hold the defendant or arrest the defendant for not paying the fine. By making this arrangement the sheriff became liable for the amount of the fine, and must look to the person on whose promise the sheriff acted. The defendant was not liable to an arrest and imprisonment for a failure to pay. Williams v. Mize, 72 Ga. 129 (1883); Howard v. Tucker, 12 Ga. App. 353, 77 S.E. 191 (1913).

Effect of pardon on fine.

- If a defendant in a criminal case gave a promissory note to the solicitor general (now district attorney) for the fine imposed on defendant, and was afterwards pardoned by the Governor and the fine remitted, and the note was inappropriate in the manner prescribed by law, such pardon and remission of the fine discharged the defendant from the payment of the note, even if the note had been sued and judgment obtained upon the note before the fine was remitted. Parrott v. Wilson, 51 Ga. 255 (1874).

Cited in Lumpkin County v. Davis, 185 Ga. 393, 195 S.E. 169 (1938); Moore v. Lawrence, 192 Ga. 441, 15 S.E.2d 519 (1941); Reid v. State, 116 Ga. App. 640, 158 S.E.2d 461 (1967).

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 21A Am. Jur. 2d, Criminal Law, § 874 et seq.

C.J.S.

- 36A C.J.S., Fines, §§ 4, 6.

ALR.

- Validity of obligation to pay or secure a fine or penalty, 29 A.L.R. 7.

Indigency of offender as affecting validity of imprisonment as alternative to payment of fine, 31 A.L.R.3d 926.