Parker v. State

• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Citation: Parker v. State, 118 Ala. 655, 23 So. 664 (Ala. 1898)
• Decision Date: 02 June 1898
• Parties: PARKER v. STATE.

23 So. 664

118 Ala. 655

PARKER v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 2, 1898

Appeal from city court of Mobile; O. J. Semmes, Judge.

Joseph Parker was convicted of miscegenation, and appeals. Affirmed.

Smith &amp Gaynor, for appellant.

William C. Fitts, Atty. Gen., for the State.

The appellant, Joseph Parker, was indicted, tried, and convicted for miscegenation; the charge being that the defendant, a negro man, married a white woman. Code 1896, § 5096; Code 1886, § 4018. The defendant was, it seems, of light color and the real issue in the case was whether he was a negro or of negro blood within the statutory degree. As bearing upon the issue, the solicitor proposed, and was allowed, against the defendant's objection, to prove that the defendant and his brother went together to the probate office to apply for a license, and that in making the application both the defendant and his brother stated that the woman was a creole. This court holds that in allowing this proof to be made the trial court committed no error, since, if it was conceded that the word "creole" implies a person of mixed African and European blood, it is clear that the statement of the defendant and his brother, made in his presence, that the woman was a creole (that...