Palmer v. City of Lumberton.*
| Decision Date | 06 May 1929 |
| Docket Number | 27873 |
| Citation | 122 So. 199,153 Miss. 886 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | PALMER v. CITY OF LUMBERTON.* |
(Division B.)
CRIMINAL LAW. Intoxicating liquors. Mayor of city having police justice has no function as ex-office justice of the peace affidavit taken and search warrant issued by mayor of city having police justice are void, and evidence obtained thereunder inadmissible (Hemingway's Code 1927 sections 2238, 6943).
Where a municipality elects a police justice under the provisions of section 6943 of Hemingway's Code of 1927 (section 3399 of the Code of 1906), the mayor of such city has no function as an ex-officio justice of the peace, but these functions are vested in a police justice, and an affidavit taken by the mayor, and a search warrant issued thereon by him, are without authority of law and void, and evidence obtained thereby is not admissible in a prosecution predicated upon the fruit of the unlawful search.
APPEAL from circuit court of Lamar county.
HON. J Q. LANGSTON, Judge.
Ever Palmer was convicted in police justice court and in circuit court for having intoxicating liquor in his possession, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
Broadus & Broadus, for appellant.
Jno. A. Yeager, for appellee.
The appellant was convicted in the court of the police justice of the city of Lumberton, for having intoxicating liquor in his possession, and from that conviction appealed to the circuit court, where he was again tried and convicted; from which judgment he appeals to this court.
The evidence upon which he was convicted was obtained by means of a search made under an affidavit and search warrant, the affidavit being taken before the mayor, and the search warrant issued by him. When this evidence was offered by the prosecution, the defendant objected upon the ground that the mayor had no power, authority, or jurisdiction to issue a search warrant, and for that reason it was illegal. The city of Lumberton had a police justice elected and qualified under an ordinance of the city, authorized by section 6943 Hemingway's Code of 1927 (section 3399, Code of 1906), which reads as follows: "In cities having less than seven thousand inhabitants, the mayor and board of aldermen may elect, at the time provided for the election of other officers by them, a police justice, and, when necessary, may elect a police justice pro tempore; and in all towns, villages and other municipalities where a police justice...
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Simmons v. Town of Louin
...appellant cites in support of his contention that the mayor had no authority to issue the search warrant the case of Palmer v. City of Lumberton, 153 Miss. 886, 122 So. 199, and the case of Washington v. State, 93 Miss. 270, 46 So. 539, 540. But neither of these cases has any application to......
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