Gavin v. State

• Decision Date: 15 November 1909
• Docket Number: 13,884
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: ELIZABETH GAVIN ET AL. v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

50 So. 498

96 Miss. 377

ELIZABETH GAVIN ET AL. v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

No. 13,884

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 15, 1909

FROM the circuit court of Noxubee county, HON. JOHN L BUCKLEY, Judge.

Madame Gavin and others, appellants, were indicted and tried for, and convicted of keeping a bawdy house, and appealed to the supreme court. The opinion of the court sufficiently states the case.

Affirmed.

J. E. Rives, for appellants.

George Butler, assistant attorney-general, for appellee.

OPINION

MAYES, J.

The only question in this case which we deem necessary to discuss is whether or not, under section 5055 of the Code of 1906, wherein it is provided that "every keeper of a house of prostitution shall be punished as a vagrant," excludes the right to prosecute such person for keeping a bawdy house.

It is urged by counsel for appellant that, since the adoption of the section above quoted, there can be no indictment of a person as a bawdy house keeper, but that in every such case such person must now be indicted only as a vagrant. We do not think this contention can be maintained. The common law still prevails in this state, where not abrogated by statute, and offenses which were such under the common law are still indictable and punishable, and keeping a bawdy house was an offense at common law, and not abrogated by our statute. One may be indicted for keeping a bawdy house, which is one offense against the laws of the state, and, again, may also be indicted as a vagrant, which is another substantive offense. The keeper of a bawdy house offends the law in allowing, permitting, and encouraging lewd, indecent, and immoral practices; and, when charged with being the keeper of a bawdy house, this is the thing for which the party is punished. In vagrancy, the offense consists in general worthlessness; that is to say, in being idle, and, though able to work, refusing to do so, and living without labor, or on the charity of others. It is thus seen that these two offenses are as distinct as the night and day.

Affirmed.