State v. Bailey
State v. Bailey
Opinion of the Court
Defendant was indicted in the Lawrence circuit court of a violation of section 4621, Revised Statutes 1889, concerning druggists. The charge was that he was a registered pharmacist, druggist and proprietor of a drug store, and as such on February 6,1896, sold to one J ames H. Robinson intoxicating liquor in less than four gallons, to wit, one half pint of blackberry wine, without a written prescription, etc. A trial was had by the court without the intervention of a jury, resulting in a judgment of conviction, from which after unsuccessful motions for new trial and in arrest, the defendant appealed:
The evidence tended to prove all the allegations of the indictment. The evidence for the defendant was that he was a practicing physician and the physician of the witness Robinson, who was under his' treatment for rheumatism, and that the defendant furnished him the wine in his practice and as a necessary remedy to relievé his (witness) stomach from the effects of a cold. One of the contentions of appellant is that the defendant as a practicing physician had the
It is also contended that the venue was not proven. The venue of an offense is a fact that can ordinarily be proven by direct and positive evidence and it is good practice to so prove it, but if for any reason it has not so been proven, courts and juries will scan the whole evidence for facts and circumstances from which the venue may be fairly deducible. The facts and circumstances in this case leave no doubt as to the venue, the fact that the town in which the defendant’s drug store is located and from which the wine was supplied the witness Robinson swore was in Lawrence county. The original bill of exceptions failed to show with certainty the quantity sold; this was afterward corrected by a nun pro tunc order so as to show the quantity was one half pint. This correction the court was authorized to make. Burdein v. Trenton, 116 Mo. 358. The conviction of the defendant is supported by both the law and the evidence, and the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.