Johnson v. State
| Decision Date | 02 July 1907 |
| Citation | 152 Ala. 46,44 So. 670 |
| Parties | JOHNSON v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Shelby County; A. H. Alston, Judge.
Wiley T. Johnson was convicted of sending a threatening and abusive letter tending to provoke a breach of the peace, and he appeals. Affirmed.
Sam Will John, for appellant.
Borden H. Burr and Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.
The defendant was indicted, tried, and convicted for a violation of section 4307 of the Criminal Code of 1896. That section reads as follows: "Any person who sends to another a threatening or abusive letter which may tend to provoke a breach of the peace must be punished," etc. The indictment contains two counts, and was preferred on the 3d day of April, 1907. The first charges that defendant, before the finding of the indictment, sent to John Pelham a threatening or abusive letter, which is set out in hæc verba which my tend to provoke a breach of the peace. The second is in the same language, omitting the contents of the letter.
Objection was taken to both counts by demurrer, raising the point that the words, "which may tend to provoke a breach of the peace," refer to the future, and not to the past, and therefore no offense is charged; that they necessarily or impliedly have reference to a period of time subsequent to the preferring of the indictment, and not antecedent thereto. The first count shows the date of the letter to be January 12, 1906. The words, "which may tend to provoke a breach of the peace," as used in the statute, are not only descriptive of what may result in the future from the sending of the letter, but which in fact may never happen, but of the character or quality of the letter. It is clear that if a breach of the peace does not actually ensue, yet if the language of the letter has any tendency towards provoking it and is abusive or threatening, the offense is complete. In short, the words under consideration, used in the indictment being those employed by the statute as descriptive of the character or quality of the letter, are entirely sufficient. It will hardly be doubted that the jury would be authorized to find that the letter possessed all the characteristics denounced by the statute.
Additional objection was taken to the second count, because the letter is not set out. This count pursues the language of the statute, and is sufficient. In Yancy v. State, 63 Ala. 141, the...
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