McCauley v. State

• Citation: 141 S.W. 975
• Parties: McCAULEY v. STATE.
• Decision Date: 20 December 1911
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas. Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

141 S.W. 975

McCAULEY v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

December 20, 1911.

Appeal from San Patricio County Court; W. H. Baldwin, Special Judge.

W. S. McCauley was convicted of libel, and he appeals. Reversed and dismissed.

Jones & Childers, for appellant. C. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HARPER, J.

The appellant in this case is the editor of the Seagoville Enterprise, a newspaper published at Seagoville, in Dallas county, and, on or about the 11th day of November, 1910, he published the following article in his paper:

"Telling the Truth.

"The Sinton Headlight says:

"`District court adjourned on Friday evening and from the Headlight's point of view it seems to have been too conservative to accomplish any good results. When Grand juries wink at crime and one man exercises the authority of a Czar, crime will run rampant and towns must needs be shot up and the flower of our young men thus misguided will of necessity have to be shot down.'

"The Headlight is a good newspaper that believes in boosting its home town, but at the same time, it waves the banner of purity, justice and fair play over the bloodstained sands of the little gulf coast town where the officers draw fat salaries and use the money to buy expensive bar fixtures for saloons that are owned and controlled by the county officials. Those foul smelling booze joints do a flourishing business and attract more boys than all the churches, manufacture drunkards by the hundreds yearly, whose only ambition and desire is to have more pool halls, saloons and sham ice cream parlors where the kids that are under age can drink booze, smoke cigarettes and tell vulgar tales unmolested.

"`To tell the truth, Sinton is a Lolla-Palusa'; when some good old soul gets so full of religion that he shouts `Amen' in church, the San Patricio County Courts are quick to adjudge him insane and hustle him off to an over-crowded bug house.

"`But the gang that drinks cheap booze, bombard the houses of peaceable citizens with beer bottles "whoopees" around town and makes the night hours hideous with their curses and vulgarity are very seldom found in the grand jury room.' They don't believe in interfering with a man's `personal liberty' in San Pat [meaning San Patricio] County unless he is crazy and disturbs public worship by shouting `Amen' or `Glory Hallelujah.' The country is alright, the climate ideal and money plentiful in the gulf coast country, but the man who has a bunch of boys to raise might as well move on to the next station called `Hades' for there is where the boys will land in a very few years anyway unless they have a general clean up day down there in the near future."

Appellant was prosecuted for libel in publishing the above article; it being alleged it was circulated in San Patricio county. When tried, he was convicted under the second count in the information, which reads as follows: "Said false, malicious, and defamatory statement, published, printed, sold, and circulated as aforesaid, further states the following, to wit: `"To tell the truth, Sinton is a Lolla-Palusa;" when some good old soul gets so full of religion that he shouts "Amen" in church, the San Patricio County Courts are quick to adjudge him insane and hustle him off to an over-crowded bug house.' Thus meaning and having reference to John McWhorter, who was adjudged insane in the county court of said county, and thus conveying and intending to convey and did convey the idea, meaning, and impression, that the said P. A. Hunter, while acting in his official capacity as county judge, in the county court of San Patricio county, sitting in the case against John McWhorter, for lunacy, violated his dignity as a judge, and knowingly acted, ruled, and instructed the jury trying the case falsely, in order that John McWhorter, a sane person, be adjudged insane, and is thereby guilty of malfeasance in office and not worthy of the office reposed in him. And further...