As Amended
SEC. 99-19-3. Convictions obtained only by verdict or guilty plea; no punishment without legal conviction.
A person indicted for a criminal offense shall not be convicted thereof, unless by confession of his guilt in open court or by admitting the truth of the charge against him by his plea, or by the verdict of a jury accepted and recorded in court. A person charged with an offense shall not be punished therefor unless legally convicted thereof in a court having jurisdiction of the cause and of the person.
SOURCES: Codes, Hutchinson's 1848, ch. 64, art. 12, Title 1(4); 1857, ch. 64, art. 359; 1871, Sec. 2866; 1880, Sec. 3101; 1892, Sec. 1456; 1906, Sec. 1529; Hemingway's 1917, Sec. 1291; 1930, Sec. 1316; 1942, Sec. 2564.