Thomas v. State
Thomas v. State
Opinion of the Court
Thomas was convicted of the unlawful possession of whiskey. His request for a peremptory was refused. He contends his arrest was unlawful and that the evidence obtained by the sheriff thereafter, as a consequence of the unlawful arrest, was inadmissible.
The sheriff of Greene .County was the only witness. He said, in substance, he went to a spot at or near which he had reason to believe whiskey was being, or had been, kept. There he hid himself in gallberry bushes. Shortly thereafter Thomas appeared in a truck being driven by
The crime charged was a misdemeanor. In Baldwin v. State, 175 Miss. 316, 167 So. 61, 62, this Court said: 4 4 An officer has the right to arrest without a warrant for the commission of a misdemeanor in his presence. Section 1227, Code of 1930. A misdemeanor is being committed in the presence of an officer when he then and there acquires knowledge thereof through one of his senses (Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 168 Miss. 30, 148 So. 346), ‘or inferences properly to be drawn from the testimony of the senses. ’ Garske v. United States, 8 Cir., 1 F. (2d) 620, 623.” In that case the officer saw the accused carrying a paper sack from which protruded the neck of a bottle, ‘ ‘ a usual and proper container for whiskey”. The officer had been informed by a prospective purchaser of whiskey that he was to meet defendant at a designated place where' the sale and purchase would be consummated. The officer and another appeared at, or near, this appointed place, to obtain an eye-view of the transaction. The informing witness and the accused
See also Sec. 23, Miss. Const. 1890; Sec. 2470, Code 1942; Butler v. State, 135 Miss. 885, 101 So. 193; Tucker v. State, 128 Miss. 211, 90 So. 845, 24 A.L.R. 1377; Orick v. State, 140 Miss. 184, 105 So. 465, 41 A.L.R. 1129; Patton v. State, 160 Miss. 274, 135 So. 552; Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 168 Miss. 30, 140 So. 346; Kelly v. State, Miss., 43 So. (2d) 383; Haney v. State, Miss., 43 So. (2d) 383.
Reversed and appellant discharged.
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- Syllabus
- 1. Arrest — without warrant — misdemeanor committed in presence of officer. An officer may, without a warrant, arrest for a misdemeanor committed in his presence, and a misdemeanor is being committed in the presence of the officer when he then and there acquires knowledge thereof through one of his senses or inferences properly to be drawn from the testimony of the senses.Page 265 2. Arrest — without warrant — misdemeanor committed in presence of officer — at what time knowledge thereof must be acquired. If the officer had no knowledge up to and at the time of making the arrest that a misdemeanor was being committed in his presence, the fact that a misdemeanor is being actually committed in his presence does not render the arrest without a warrant lawful when the officer's knowledge was obtained by or through the arrest itself and not by what he knew before or at the time of the arrest, a previous suspicion not being sufficient. 3. Arrest — without warrant — for misdemeanor on suspicion, case in point. When a sheriff, having reason to suspect that whiskey was being kept at a particular spot, concealed himself near by, and when the accused not theretofore suspected came to the spot, disappeared down an embankment and soon reappeared with a bottle in his hand, the contents of which, if anything, was wholly unknown to the sheriff, whereupon the sheriff immediately arrested him without a warrant, the arrest was unlawful, and the testimony obtained thereby was inadmissible, although it was discovered after the arrest that the bottle actually contained whiskey. Headnotes as approved by Roberds, J.