Calvert v. State
| Decision Date | 13 January 1910 |
| Citation | 51 So. 311,165 Ala. 99 |
| Parties | CALVERT v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Blount County; John W. Inzer, Judge.
James P. Calvert was convicted of violating the liquor law, and appeals. Reversed and rendered.
Thomas B. Russell, for appellant.
Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Prosecution for selling whisky in the year 1908. Defendant was apprehended at the house of one James Mickens. The developments of that occasion were made the basis of this prosecution. Three or four other negroes were present, and in the room were two empty jugs and several bottles of whisky. Proprietor Mickens testified that he had gone away earlier in the night, and that upon his return he found the negroes and the whisky in his house, where neither they nor it had been when he left. Upon the evidence of these facts, without more, as a predicate in the way of proof of the corpus delicti of the offense charged, proof of an extrajudicial confession was admitted, and the appellant was convicted, all over his objection, made known in various ways and here renewed.
In Harden v. State, 109 Ala. 50, 19 So. 494, the defendant was tried on a charge of misdemeanor. This court ruled that a mere confession would not authorize a conviction, unless, independent of the confession, the evidence was sufficient to authorize the conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense had been committed, and that in the absence of such proof the defendant was entitled to the affirmative charge. An application of that rule to this case must result in a reversal of the judgment of conviction, and an order that the appellant be discharged.
Reversed and rendered.
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Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Jenkins
... ... the frightened, "prancing" mule he was trying to ... drive or control? In L. & N.R.R. Co. v. Calvert, as ... Adm'r, 172 Ala. 597, 55 So. 812, and in Herring ... v. L. & N.R.R. Co., 70 So. 744, on like evidence, it was ... held to be a question for ... ...
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Braxton v. State
... ... unless, independent of the confession, the evidence is ... sufficient to authorize the conclusion beyond a reasonable ... doubt that the offense has been committed." ... And this dictum was carried into the opinions in ... the cases of Calvert v. State, 165 Ala. 99, 51 So ... 311, and Johnson v. State, 13 Ala.App. 196, 68 So ... 687; Patterson v. State, 79 So. 459. But these cases ... do not appear to hold that this rule should apply to the court ... in passing upon the evidence establishing the corpus delicti as ... a predicate ... ...
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Patterson v. State
...170 Ala. 65, 54 So. 115. A mere confession without other proof of the crime will not support a conviction. Calvert v. State, 165 Ala. 99), 51 So. 311; Harden v. State, 109 Ala. 50, So. 494. The evidence bearing on the fact of tracks of two persons, detailed by the witnesses Hall and Bostick......
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Hill v. State
... ... statement is inaccurate, and was a dictum merely. Manifestly ... it was an inadvertence, and its inconsistency with Ryan ... v. State, 100 Ala. 94, 14 So. 868, which was written by ... the same learned justice, was overlooked. The dictum was ... quoted later in the case of Calvert v. State, 165 ... Ala. 99, 51 So. 311, where, however, the distinction in ... question was not involved, and evidently was not in the mind ... of the writer nor of the court. We therefore disapprove the ... dictum in Harden v. State, supra, and reaffirm the principle ... as stated in the older ... ...