Harris v. State

• Decision Date: 31 October 1867
• Citation: 30 Tex. 521
• Parties: BENNETT & HARRIS v. THE STATE.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

30 Tex. 521

BENNETT & HARRIS

v.THE STATE.

Supreme Court of Texas.

October, 1867.

Every intendment must be indulged in favor of the authority for the action of the court below, and, until the contrary appears, it will be presumed as found and presented to the court as the law directs.

Where the court charged the jury that, if they found both the defendants guilty, they would assess a fine against each, and the jury found them guilty, and assessed the fine of $15 for an offense against the Sunday laws. This is a finding of $15 against each of the defendants. Pas. Dig. art. 1908.

APPEAL from Guadalupe. The case was tried before Hon. JOHN IRELAND, one of the district judges.

The defendants were indicted as keepers of a grog-shop, under the Sunday law, for that they engaged in the retail of spirituous liquors on Sunday. The proof was that they were the owners of a liquor shop, and that certain persons were seen to drink liquor there on Sunday. The jury found them guilty, and assessed their fine each at $15. The facts are more minutely stated in the briefs of counsel and opinion of the court. The defendants appealed.

John P. White, for appellant.

E. B. Turner, Attorney General, for the state.

LINDSAY, J.

We do not think the errors assigned in this case are sufficient to reverse it. The two main objections to the verdict and judgment are, that it does not appear that the indictment was presented in open court by the grand jury, and that the verdict and judgment were not responsive to the charge of the court. To the first we answer, every intendment must be indulged in favor of the authority for the action of the court below in the trial of the cause. To the second, we say the court properly charged that, if the jury should find the defendants guilty, they should assess a fine against them of not less than $15 nor more than $50. This is the law. The charge was, further, that if they found both guilty, they would say how much they would assess against each. The jury found both defendants guilty, and assessed the fine at $15. This was a several finding against each of $15, as each was guilty of the offense against the law; and the judgment was that the state recover of the defendants, not jointly, because there can be no legal partnership in crime, but severally, the sum of $15 of each, of which offense each was guilty, and for which each was required to stand committed until his offense was atoned for by the payment of his fine, by which alone he could purge himself from his guilt. The judgment of the court below is

Affirmed.

NOTE.--As this subject has been one of considerable interest in Texas, and as the law of 1866 has not been printed in any digest, it is here given in full.

“AN ACT amendatory of ‘An act to punish certain offenses committed on Sunday,’ approved December 16, 1863.

1. The above recited act is hereby amended, so...