Sweatt v. State
Sweatt v. State
Opinion of the Court
— The affidavit on Avhich the defendant was tried for selling vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors without a license and contrary to law was made on the 16th day of January, 1906. Lee Ireland, the person to whom the state contends the Avhisky was sold, after testifying to circumstances tending to show a isale of whisky by the defendant to Avitness in Walker county, said he did not remember Avhen the sale was made, or Avhether it was 12 months before the affidavit was made against defendant or not; that he did not know when the affidavit Avas made. “It was before he [defendant] was tried in the mayor’s court, in which I was a witness against him.” The solicitor then asked the witness: “What was he tried in the mayor’s court for?” The exceptions taken to the action of the court in overruling the objections to this question cannot avail defendant anything here. The only purpose of the inquiry Avas to elicit data by which the time of the sale might be made definite. The matter sought was collateral and the
Whether or not the time testified to by witness Shores was the same as that which had been testified to by Ireland and Lowry was, on the evidence as presented here, a question to be determined by the jury; but, if it was another time, it was competent evidence, not for the purpose of convicting the defendant of that sale, but as tending to show that the transaction between Ireland and Sweat was a sale, and that Sweat was a seller, and not a mere agent; in other words, as- shedding light on the bona fides of Sweat. — McIntosh’s Case, 140 Ala. 137, 37 South. 223. Limited as it was by the court, the admission of the evidence of the mayor and his docket, in respect to the objection and motion going to the whole of the docket entry, was without error. The court did not say, as is supposed by counsel, that the offense for which the defendant wais tried in the mayor’s court was identical with the one at bar. What the court said was: “The court stated that it would alloAv it [the docket] to go to the jury only for the purpose of showing the date that Wade Sweat was tried in the mayor’s court, and that the offense for which the defendant was tried in the mayor’s court was identical with the one at bar.” This simply means what it purports to mean — that the evidence was admitted for that purpose. There Avas no error in this. •
The argument of the solicitor, objected to, was unwarranted, and the court should have excluded it from the jury; but it appears that the court, in awswer to the
The question of the guilt of the defendant was one properly for the consideration of the jury, and the court did not err in refusing the charge requested by the defendant.
Affirmed.
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