Hinton v. State

• Decision Date: 13 February 1902
• Citation: 31 So. 563,132 Ala. 29
• Parties: HINTON v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

31 So. 563

132 Ala. 29

HINTON v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

February 13, 1902

Appeal from criminal court, Pike county; T. L. Borom, Judge.

D. F Hinton was convicted of selling spirituous or vinous liquors without a license, and appeals. Reversed.

E. R Brannen, for appellant.

Chas G. Brown, Atty. Gen., for the State.

HARALSON J.

The defendant was indicted for selling spirituous, vinous or malt liquors without a license.

Several persons examined as witnesses by the state testified, that the defendant, within 12 months before the finding of the indictment, sold to them at his store in Pike county, blackberry wine by the glass. One of the witnesses testified, it made him drunk, and another, that he felt it "right smartly," and, each, deposed, that he drank no other intoxicating liquor.

The defendant introduced witnesses whose testimony tended to show, that the wine sold was not an intoxicant. The defendant testified, that he made said wine, by taking blackberries and crushing them, putting them in water and allowing them to stand about two days, and afterwards he strained the juice out and sweetened it with sugar, adding nothing else. He also introduced evidence tending to show, that the state's witnesses, during the day they bought the wine from him and drank it, had some whisky and gin which they also drank.

Worcester defines wine, (1) as, "The fermented juice of the grape a spirituous liquid resulting from the fermentation of grapejuice;" and, (2) "The fermented juice of certain fruits resembling in many respects the wine obtained from grapes, but distinguished therefrom, by naming the source whence it is derived; as, ginger wine, gooseberry wine, currant wine," etc. We discover no reason for holding that the term "vinous liquors," does not include the fermented juice of blackberries as well as that of grapes. The intention of the legislature, we take it, in its system for raising revenue for the state, and in its regulation of the sale and disposition of intoxicating liquors, was not to include the one and exclude the other, especially if that made from the juice of blackberries and other berries became wine or spirituous liquor after fermentation with sugar, producing intoxication when taken as a beverage. Black, Intox. Liq. § 5. The wine of the grape or berries, before fermentation, cannot be said to be wine; but with sugar added, and after fermentation and the addition...