Love v. State

• Decision Date: 19 December 1899
• Citation: 27 So. 217,124 Ala. 82
• Parties: LOVE v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

27 So. 217

124 Ala. 82

LOVE v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

December 19, 1899

Appeal from circuit court, Lee county; A. A. Evans, Judge.

John Love was convicted of adultery or fornication, and he appeals.Affirmed.

The following was the indictment: "The grand jury of said county charge that before the finding of this indictment that John Love, a white man, and Alice Pinckard, a negro woman did live together in a state of adultery or fornication against the peace and dignity of the state of Alabama."To this indictment the defendant, John Love, who was tried separately, on his motion for a severance, demurred on the ground that "said indictment fails to allege that defendant and Alice Pinckard lived in adultery or fornication with each other."The court overruled this demurrer, and the defendant duly excepted.On the trial of the case, the evidence for the state tended to show that in the spring of the year, just before the finding of the indictment, the defendant, Love, was seen several times at night in the house of Alice Pinckard; that he was seen several times in the bed with her, and was repeatedly seen to go there at night remain there during the night, and then seen the next morning leaving her house; that, on account of the misconduct of the said Alice, she was made to leave the house she then lived in, and the defendant rented another house for her; that after she moved to the new house, defendant was frequently seen going there at night, and leaving said house in the morning, and was seen there with her several times.One Mills, the chief of police of the city of Opelika, testified that about the middle of January, 1898, he went to the house of Alice Pinckard, to arrest her for the violation of a city ordinance; that when he reached the house he found Alice Pinckard in the bed, and the defendant, Love, in the act of putting on his clothes; that thereupon he arrested them both on a charge of disorderly conduct, and carried them before a magistrate, who bound them over on a charge of adultery.The state's counsel then asked this witness if the defendant Love, said anything at the time he was arrested.The defendant objected to this question on the ground that the question called for illegal, irrelevant, and incompetent evidence.The court overruled the objection, and to this ruling the defendant duly excepted.The witness answered "Yes, he said to the co-defendant, Alice Pinckard, 'I've spent a heap of money on you to get you out of your troubles, and now you have gone and raised the devil; and, if I had a gun, I would shoot your brains out, and kill myself."'The defendant moved to exclude this answer on the same grounds, and duly excepted to the court overruling his motion.The evidence on the part of the defendant tended to show that there was no understanding or agreement between...