Talbot v. State
| Decision Date | 17 June 1930 |
| Docket Number | 8 Div. 122. |
| Parties | TALBOT v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Lauderdale County; J. Fred Johnson, Jr. Judge.
Mrs Lena Talbot was convicted for possession of liquor, and she appeals.
Reversed and rendered.
Jas. C Roberts, of Florence, for appellant.
Charlie C. McCall, Atty. Gen., for the State.
The evidence in this case as shown in the record has been read by the court and considered en banc. We are at a loss to understand how the conviction of this appellant for the possession of liquor could be rested upon the evidence adduced upon this trial. There was but one witness for the state, and his testimony tended to show that during the absence from home of this appellant in an adjoining state he went to the residence where she, her husband, and her family lived, unlocked the door, and searched the house for prohibited liquor, and found in the house a small quantity of whisky. There is nothing in his testimony tending to connect this appellant with its possession; nothing tending to show she has any knowledge that the whisky was in the house where she lived with her family, all of whom were absent on the day he made the search; and the undisputed testimony disclosed this appellant and her husband were at the time in the state of Tennessee. To permit a conviction of this character to stand upon such testimony would be unconscionable. It would be an exceedingly dangerous precedent to hold that the mere finding of prohibited liquor in the home of a citizen, with nothing to connect the accused therewith, and nothing to indicate or to impute any knowledge of the fact to him, is sufficient to deprive him of his liberty and branch him as a criminal before the world. If such were the law, every citizen would be at the mercy of an enemy who by merely surreptitiously placing the inhibited article in the home of his enemy could wreak his vengeance through the aid of the law in this dastardly manner. The law contemplates no such condition, nor will the courts countenance such a thing. The law in its wisdom provides that every person charged with crime is presumed to be innocent and this presumption is not an empty or meaningless provision; to the contrary, it is regarded as evidence in behalf of the accused, and attends him as such throughout the trial, or until the presumption is overcome by legal evidence doubt and to a...
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Temple v. State
...of the kitchen in his home while he was at work. This simply will not sustain a conviction for possession. Talbot v. State, 23 Ala.App. 559, 129 So. 323 (1930), quoted in Bivens v. State, 27 Ala.App. 304, 305, 171 So. 755, cert. denied, 233 Ala. 304, 171 So. 756 Since the evidence is insuff......
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Burt v. State, 7 Div. 269
...Ala.App. 23, 104 So. 867; Phillips v. State, 22 Ala.App. 97, 112 So. 810; Clayton v. State, 22 Ala.App. 276, 114 So. 787; Talbot v. State, 23 Ala.App. 559, 129 So. 323; Eldridge v. State, 24 Ala.App. 395, 135 So. 646; Coker v. State, 25 Ala.App. 191, 143 So. 206; Buckner v. State, 25 Ala.Ap......
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Walls v. State
... ... was not present, and no evidence whatever to connect him ... therewith, is insufficient upon which to predicate a verdict ... of guilty, and that such evidence will not sustain a judgment ... of conviction. Huckabaa v. State, 23 Ala.App. 333, ... 125 So. 202; Talbot v. State, 23 Ala.App. 559, 129 ... So. 323, 324; Hutcheson v. State, 21 Ala.App. 174, ... 106 So. 206; Johnson v. State, 20 Ala. App. 598, 104 ... So. 352; Bush v. State, 20 Ala.App. 486, 103 So. 91; ... Ammons v. State, 20 Ala.App. 283, 101 So. 511; ... Spelce v. State, 20 Ala.App. 412, 103 ... ...
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Abernethy v. State, 5 Div. 413
...a defendant can be convicted of crime, and this must be established by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt." Talbot v. State, 23 Ala.App. 559, 560, 129 So. 323 (1930). "It is very true that to constitute a crime, there must be both an act and an intent." Hoover v. State, 59 Ala. 57, 60 (......