Edwards v. State

• Decision Date: 16 June 1936
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 329
• Citation: 169 So. 22,27 Ala.App. 207
• Parties: EDWARDS v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Appeals

169 So. 22

27 Ala.App. 207

EDWARDS v. STATE.

8 Div. 329

Court of Appeals of Alabama

June 16, 1936

Appeal from Circuit Court, Madison County; Paul Speake, Judge.

Sarah Edwards was convicted of unlawfully possessing prohibited liquor, and she appeals.

Affirmed.

Lanier Price & Shaver, of Huntsville, for appellant.

A.A Carmichael, Atty. Gen., for the State.

SAMFORD Judge.

The trial was had before the judge sitting without a jury. There were many objections and exceptions to introduction of evidence. Some of these rulings may have constituted technical error, but, eliminating all of the questionable testimony, the remaining evidence is without conflict and sufficient to support the judgment. The rule in such cases is: "Where a case is tried by a judge without a jury, the admission of illegal evidence raises the presumption of injury, just as in cases tried before a jury, and requires the reversal of the judgment, unless the remaining evidence is without conflict and is sufficient to support the judgment." Booker v. State, 23 Ala.App. 78, 121 So. 3, 4; Deal v. Houston County, 201 Ala. 431, 78 So. 809, 812.

The evidence in this case is without conflict that there was found by the officers about five gallons of beer in an icebox in the coalhouse attached to the residence in which lived the defendant with her husband. This beer was shown to have been a beverage condemned by section 4615 of the Code of 1923, which is still the law, as modified by an Act of the Legislature 1932. Gen.Acts 1932, Ex.Sess., p. 56. Abernathy v. State (Ala.App.) 165 So. 787. The evidence is also without conflict that the beer did not comply with the requirements of section 2 of the act, supra, so as to give protection to defendant in its possession.

Section 4615 of the Code is modified, but only to the extent as is set out in the statute, and, when the liquor or beverage possessed or sold by a defendant charged with a violation of the prohibition law is not in pint bottles, containing twelve fluid ounces of same to the bottle thereof, which bottle shall be hermetically sealed and labeled by the manufacturer with the label plainly showing the name of the product, the name and place of the manufacturer, the ingredients of the cotents, including the amount of alcohol, if any, the bottle also to bear the licensed stamp label of the manufacturer dealer, distributor, or retailer, as may be prescribed by law, and also to bear...