E.T. III v. State
E.T. III v. State
Opinion of the Court
The appellant, E.T. Ill, appeals from the juvenile court’s adjudication finding him de
The confusion stems from the trial judge’s statements in the record that signify his apparent belief that E.T. was charged with committing a different offense than the petition in fact charged. The delinquency petition in this ease charged that E.T. violated § 13A-11-52, Code of Alabama, 1975. That statute reads, in pertinent part, as follows: “Except as otherwise provided in this article, no person shall carry a pistol about his person on premises not his own or under his control.” However, at the beginning of the hearing on the petition, the juvenile court stated, “We’re here for trial on the issue of carrying a pistol without a permit
Despite this confusion, we need not remand this case for the juvenile court to elarify which of the two offenses it found E.T. to have committed. As is apparent from our discussion below, under either alternative, i.e. either offense, the judgment is due to be reversed.
I.
Assuming that the juvenile court adjudicated E.T. delinquent on a finding that E.T. had committed the offense of carrying a pistol on premises not his own, § 13A-11-52, E.T. is correct in his assertion that the juvenile court erred in denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal. The Alabama Supreme Court interpreted a former codification of this prohibition to apply only to the carrying of a pistol on the private property of others — not on any public property. Isaiah v. State, 58 So. 53 (Ala. 1911).
In so holding, we reject the attorney general’s argument that § 13A-11-73 expands the scope of § 13A-11-52 to apply to public places. The phrase “[ejxcept as otherwise provided” in § 13A-11-52 merely recognizes that other statutes provide exceptions to the general prohibition set out in § 13A-11-52, i.e., other statutes may specify circumstances in which a person may carry a pistol on the private property of others. To a limited extent, § 13A-11-73 does provide an exception to the general prohibition set out in § 13A-11-52; however, this exception is lim
II.
The attorney general’s interjection of § 13A-11-73 into its argument to this court, mirroring the juvenile court’s verbal indications that it found E.T. to be guilty of carrying a pistol without a license, brings us to our alternative holding: assuming that the state intended to prove that E.T. was delinquent due to his alleged possession of a pistol without a permit, then the state should have charged E.T. with violating § 13A-11-73. However, the state chose not to proceed under that statute, and E.T. was not placed on notice that he would have to defend against a charge under that statute. Thus, any adjudication of delinquency that may have resulted from the juvenile court’s finding E.T. guilty of a violation of § 13A-11-73 would be void, as being obtained without a charging instrument and thus without notice.
Accordingly, the judgment is reversed and the case remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
. Apparently, this was a reference to § 13A-11-73, which states: “No person shall carry a pistol in any vehicle or concealed on or about his person, except on his land, in his own abode or fixed place of business, without a license therefor as hereinafter provided.”
. The statute reviewed in Isaiah v. State, 58 So. 53 (Ala. 1911), stated, in pertinent part, as follows: "It shall be unlawful for any person to carry a pistol about his person on premises not his own or under his control.” This language was carried over in its entirety to § 13A-11-52. Although the current statute has includes exceptions (expressed in the language “[ejxcept as otherwise provided in this article”), no exception applies to the facts before us. In view of the facts of this case, we conclude that the interpretation in Isaiah of the language now presented is authoritative.
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