Brown v. State
Brown v. State
Opinion of the Court
A comparison of the language of the statute with the averments of the indictment shows that it substantially, if not literally, follows the language of the statute and charges all the facts essential to constitute the offense. This, under the repeated rulings of the Supreme Court, is all that is required. The demurrers to the indictment and the motion in arrest of judgment were properly overruled. — Wilson v. State, 61 Ala. 151; Smith v. State, 63 Ala. 55; Walker v. State, supra; Marshall v. State, 120 Ala. 391, 25 South. 208; Flake v. State, 19 Ala. 551; Sellers v. State, 49 Ala. 357.
The state offered evidence tending to show that one Howie, for the purpose of obtaining money from Cullom, threatened to make a disclosure by publication of an article in the Searchlight, *183 a newspaper formerly owned and operated by defendant, but at the time owned and controlled by Howie, published in the city of Birmingham; that such article was calculated to injure the social standing of Cullom; and the state’s evidence tended to show that the defendant was particeps criminis with Howie. The defendant does not deny that Howie proposed to make the publication, nor that Howie, as a result of the negotiations with Cullom’s friends and agents, obtained the sum of $100 for the suppression of the defendant’s name in the publication, and offered evidence tending to show that defendant was not personally interested in the transaction or connected with the proposed publication. He, however, admits that he was present during some of the negotiations, and that the money was turned over to him by Cullom’s agents to be delivered to Howie. One contention of defendant was that the intent and purpose of the publication was the suppression of a place of vice by giving to the public intelligence as to the conduct of those who resorted to a place known as “The Elms,” and not for the purpose of obtaining money from Cullom or any one else; and that the payment by Cullom was voluntary and for the purpose of reimbursing Howie the necessary expense incident to having the publication reset in type, dropping Cullom’s name therefrom, and evidence was offered tending to support this theory of the defense. Otherwise stated, the contention of the state is that both the defendant and Howie were interested in the scheme; that a conspiracy was formed by them to use the facts within their knowledge as a means of gain by threatening to make public certain scandalous matter, with the criminal purpose and intent of extorting money', and that the transaction involved here is the result of a general course of conduct of these parties. On the other hand, the defendant’s contention is that the purpose of the proposed publication was the suppression of vice, and that the money was paid by Cullom and accepted by Howie for the purpose and intent of reimbursing Hoyle for expenses incident to changing the type of the proposed publication.
The bill of exceptions refers to several copies of the publication'offered in evidence, but these copies are not made a part of the record or presented here so as to invite consideration of the appellant’s objections to their admissibility as evidence. — Gard ner v. State, 96 Ala. 14, 11 South. 402; Burton v. State, 107 Ala. 108, 18 South. 284; Pitts v. State, 140 Ala. 70, 37 South. 101.
We find no error in the record and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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