2013 Nebraska Revised Statutes
Chapter 29 - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
29-2412 - Fine and costs; nonpayment; commutation upon confinement; credit; amount.

29-2412. Fine and costs; nonpayment; commutation upon confinement; credit; amount.

(1) Whenever it is made satisfactorily to appear to the district court, or to the county judge of the proper county, after all legal means have been exhausted, that any person who is subject to being or is confined in jail for any fine or costs of prosecution for any criminal offense has no estate with which to pay such fine or costs, it shall be the duty of such court or judge, on his or her own motion or upon the motion of the person so confined, to discharge such person from further imprisonment for such fine or costs, which discharge shall operate as a complete release of such fine or costs.

(2) Nothing in this section shall authorize any person to be discharged from imprisonment before the expiration of the time for which he or she may be sentenced to be imprisoned, as part of his or her punishment, or when such person shall default on a payment due pursuant to an installment agreement arranged by the court.

(3) Any person held in custody for nonpayment of a fine or costs or for default on an installment shall be entitled to a credit on the fine, costs, or installment of ninety dollars for each day so held. In no case shall a person held in custody for nonpayment of a fine or costs be held in such custody for more days than the maximum number to which he or she could have been sentenced if the penalty set by law includes the possibility of confinement.

Source

G.S.1873, c. 58, § 528, p. 838;
R.S.1913, § 9199;
C.S.1922, § 10206;
C.S.1929, § 29-2412;
R.S.1943, § 29-2412;
Laws 1959, c. 122, § 2, p. 455;
Laws 1979, LB 111, § 2;
Laws 1986, LB 528, § 5;
Laws 1988, LB 370, § 7;
Laws 2010, LB712, § 17.

Annotations

An indigent may not be required to satisfy a fine by imprisonment. The court cannot require that a fine be satisfied by applying jail time served without giving defendant an opportunity to pay the fine or show indigency. State v. Holloway, 212 Neb. 426, 322 N.W.2d 818 (1982).

Sentence by county court that defendant was "fined sixty days in county jail" was inaccurate and was reversed with directions to resentence. Sinner v. State, 128 Neb. 759, 260 N.W. 275 (1935).

Issuance of execution to collect fine is not prerequisite to imprisonment until fine is paid. State ex rel. Marasco v. Mundell, 127 Neb. 673, 256 N.W. 519 (1934).

Prisoner, confined for nonpayment of costs, can be released only after imprisonment of at least one day for each three dollars. In re Newton, 39 Neb. 757, 58 N.W. 436 (1894); In re Dobson, 37 Neb. 449, 55 N.W. 1071 (1893).