Goode v. State
Goode v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The third instruction asked by the defendant was properly refused. It did not state the law. The presumption of law is that every intoxicating liquor sold without authority of a license is in violation of law. TJpon a prosecution for an unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor, the general rule is that the state, by proving the sale and the intoxicating nature of the liquor, makes out a prima facie case authorizing a conviction.
There is, however, a certain class of liquors or preparations which, though intoxicating in their nature, may nevertheless be lawfully sold under certain circumstances by persons not having license to sell intoxicants, such as proprietary or pharmaceutical preparations prepared primarily as medicines. As to such compounds, their sale is not forbidden under any and all circumstances, but a criminal intent on the part of the seller must exist in order to make a sale thereof a crime. A druggist or other dealer having lawful authority to sell such preparations is not guilty of a crime on every occasion when he makes a sale, even though the purchaser, through a morbid craving for alcoholic stimulants, may convert the medicinal preparations into the medium to produce a drunken debauch. As said by this court in King & Wall v. State, 58 Miss., 737 (38 Am. St. Rep., 344), “one authorized to sell' medicines ought not to be held guilty of violating the laws relative to the sale of intoxicants because the purchaser of a medicine containing alcohol misuses it and becomes intoxicated.” Otherwise, every time a druggist or other dealer sold a bottle of any one of many recognized medicinal preparations, however innocent the sale might be on his part, he would be liable to a criminal prosecution, if the purchaser, though a stranger to him, should devote the preparation to the purposes of intoxication—
For the reason indicated, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jacob R. Goode v. State of Mississippi
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Intoxicating Liquors. Unlawful sale. Medicine. The sale of a decoction, intended primarily as a medicine, although it will produce intoxication when drunk to excess, is not a violation of the statute, Code 1892, § 1592, prohibiting the sale of intoxicants, unless it were sold as a beverage, and not as a medicine. 2. Same. Presumption. Prima facie case. In a prosecution for selling intoxicants, the state makes out a prima faeie case of guilt by proof of the sale by the defendant and of the intoxicating nature of the liquor. 8. Same. Instruction. Where, on a prosecution for the unlawful sale of intoxicants, it appeared that the defendant had sold a bottle of bitters, and that the bitters when drunk to excess would produce intoxication, and the defense was that the intoxicant was sold as a medicine, it was error, as ignoring the defense, to instruct the jury that if defendant asked no question as to whether the purchaser wanted to use the bitters as a beverage or a medicine he was guilty.