Patton v. The State Of Ga.
| Decision Date | 31 March 1888 |
| Parties | Patton. vs. The State of Georgia. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Criminal law. Indictment. Limitations. Liquor. Evidence. Before Judge Wellborn. Habersham superior court. September term, 1887.
The defendant was indicted, at March term, 1887, by the grand jury of Habersham county for selling, without license and taking the oath prescribed in the code, spirituous liquors in quantities less than a gallon; also for selling without registering as a dealer; also, after having registered, for failing and refusing to pay the tax required of such dealers; also for selling at retail without taking the oath prescribed and paying the license to the county authority or a municipal authority authorized to grant licenses. Each count laid the offence as committed on the first of February, 1887. When the case was called, and before pleading, the defendant demurred to the indictment on the following grounds:
(1) That the license or retail laws recited in the indictment as having been violated were repealed by the special local option law for Habersham county, passed December 24, 1884, ratified by the people of that county at an election held August 5, 1885, for that purpose, and proclaimed by the ordinary on September 11, 1885, as going into effect.
(2) That there is no law in force in Habersham county under which the defendant can, if convicted, be punished for the acts charged in the indictment.
The demurrer was overruled. On the trial, the State showed, by one witness, that he bought whiskey from defendant once or twice the spring before, and paid for it; and that this buying was the same as he testified about at the last term of court, when the defendant's husband was on trial for selling whiskey. Another testified that he bought fifteen cents worth of whiskey from the defendant at Clarkesville some time in the spring, paid part and owed part; and that this was not the same transaction as he testified about at the previous term of court when the husband of defendant was on trial. The defendant, in herstatement at the trial, said that she never owned or bought any whiskey for sale; that her husband had some, and was taken up, tried and lined; and that the second witness above mentioned came and said his wife was sick with measles, got the whiskey and promised to pay for it, but never did.
The jury found the defendant guilty. She moved in arrest of judgment on the same grounds as those set forth in her demurrer, and the motion was overruled. She then moved for a new trial on the following grounds:
(1) The court erred in overruling the demurrer.
(2) The court erred in charging the jury that if the defendant sold whiskey, as charged, she was guilty, unless she had shown a license from the ordinary or other proper authority authorizing her to make the sale.
(3) The court erred in refusing to charge that the buyer of whiskey is an accomplice to the crime of selling whiskey unlawfully, and whilst his testimony is admissible, it comes before the jury with the suspicion attached by law to the testimony of an accomplice; and the jury would be warranted in disbelieving it, unless corroborated, if they saw proper.
(4) The verdict was contrary to law and evidence.
The motion was overruled. The defendant excepted to the overruling of this motion, and also specially to the overruling of her demurrer and of the motion in arrest of judgment.
W. S. Erwin and C. H. Sutton, for plaintiff in error.
Howard Thompson, solicitor-general, by W. F. Findley, for the State.
1. By the code, §4664, it is declared that offences shall be prosecuted and punished under the laws in force at the time of the commission of the same, notwithstanding therepeal of such laws before the trial takes place. The time within which indictments are to be found and filed, in cases of misdemeanor, is two years after the commission of the offence. Code, §4065. It follows that if the special local option law of December 21th, 1884, (acts 1884-5, p. 523.) for Habersham county, went into effect on the 5th of August, 18S5, it...
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