Fox v. State
Fox v. State
Opinion of the Court
“The most approved definition of larceny at common law is given by Mr. East, in Ms Crown Laws: ‘The- fraudulent or wrongful taking and carrying away by any person of the mere personal goods of another, from any place, with a felonious intent to convert them to his own use, and make them his own property, without the consent of the owner.” 2 East, 524; 3 Greenl. Ev. § 150; Holly v. State, 54 Ala. 238.
Secrecy in the taking is not a necessary ingredient of larceny. Carl v. State, 125 Ala. 89, 28 South. 505.
The various excerpts from the court’s oral charge, when considered with the whole charge, are in line with the foregoing, and are without error.
“If there is a probability of the defendant's innocence,'then you should find him not guilty.”
Tho refusal to give this charge is held to be reversible error in the following eases: Adams v. State, 175 Ala. 11, 57 South. 591; Fleming v. State, 150 Ala. 19, 43 South. 219; Bones v. State, 117 Ala. 138, 23 South. 138; Whitaker v. State, 106 Ala. 30, 17 South. 456; Croft v. State, 95 Ala. 3, 10 South. 517; Bain v. State, 74 Ala. 38; Shaw v. State, 125 Ala. 80, 28 South. 390; Henderson v. State, 120 Ala. 360, 25 South. 236; Prince v. State, 100 Ala. 144, 14 South. 409, 46 Am. St. Rep. 28; Nordan v. State, 143 Ala. 13, 39 South. 406.
This charge may be differentiated from charge G, in McClain v. State, 182 Ala. 74, 62 South. 241, where the court held to be a bad. charge, the following:
“If the jury believe after a consideration of the evidence or any part thereof, that there is a probability of defendant’s innocence, then they should acquit Mm,”
—-for the reason that the court in the McClain Case predicated upon a part of the evidence, while the charge in the instant case has no such limitations.
But in Buckhanon v. State, 12 Ala. App. 56, 67 South. 718, the identical charge was held to be bad because it failed to qualify probability by the word reasonable, and in Davis v. State, 188 Ala. 59, 66 South. 67, Sayre, J., held the charge to be bad because it did not predicate the probability of innocence as arising out of the evidence. The opinion in the Davis Case does not in express terms overrule the long line of decisions to. the contrary, but we are bound by the last utterance of the Supreme Court, and hence must hold that the charge was properly refused.
Charge 6 ignores the principle set out in the foregoing opinion, and was therefore bad-
Charge 7 fails to fix the time of sale that would be necessary to acquit the defendant of crime.
There was no variance between the allegations and proof, and hence the charges, including the affirmative charge predicated upon this fact, were properly refused.
Charge 15 relates to the second count of the indictment, which was withdrawn.
*561 Charges 13, 14, 16, and 17 were all fully covered by other given charges, and by the oral charge of the court.
There is no error in the record, and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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