Roland v. State
Roland v. State
Opinion of the Court
This prosecution was commenced in the county court of Shelby county by affidavit made by t)ave Harper before J. P. Pearson, clerk of the circuit court, and ex-officio clerk of the county court of Shelby county in which the defendant was charged with the offense of selling vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors without a license and contrary to law. The authority of the clerk to take the affidavit exists under the third section of the act to regulate the trial of misdemeanors in Shelby county, approved December 9, 1896, Acts 1896-97. p. 124. The case was tried before the judge without a jury, and. the appeal is prosecuted from the judgment of the court convicting the defendant. — Acts 1896-97, p. 123.
At the trial, and when the case was called, the solicitor made known to- the court that the affidavit was lost, and motion to substitute a copy of the affidavit for the original was granted by the court. To the motion to substitute a demurrer was overruled. The demurrer proceeds upon the theory that the court was without authority to substitute a lost affidavit in a criminal case. It was held in Ganaway’s Case by a divided court that a lost indictment could not be substituted. The court there recognized the right inherent in the court. to- substitute any part of the record which has been lost or destroyed in civil cases, but held that, the rule did not apply to- indictments. The conclusion there reached was based principally upon the proposition that the statutes of jeofails and amendments,, which, in general terms, authorize corrections and amendments in process and pleadings, did not apply to indictments. — Ganaway’s Case, 22 Ala. 772. That case’was tried at,the February term, 1852, of the city court of Mobile, and presumably before the adoption of the code of 1852, as no notice was taken in the opinion of the court of the statute providing for the substitution -of lost indictments which is section 3527 of the code of 1852, and section 4919 of the code of 1896. — Bradford’s Case, 54 Ala. 230.
The witnesses were examined ore tenus, and we do not feel that we would be warranted in disturbing the conclusion reached' by the court as to the defendant’s guilt. — Woodrow v. Hawving, 105 Ala. 210, 16- South. 720.
There is no error, and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.