Williams v. United States

• Decision Date: 24 October 1918
• Docket Number: 3221.
• Citation: 254 F. 52
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

254 F. 52

WILLIAMS v. UNITED STATES.

No. 3221.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

October 24, 1918

John R Cooper, of Macon, Ga., for plaintiff in error.

E. M Donalson, U.S. Atty., of Macon, Ga. (Wallace Miller, Asst U.S. Atty., of Macon, Ga., on the brief), for the United States.

Before WALKER and BATTS, Circuit Judges, and SHEPPARD, District Judge.

SHEPPARDDistrict Judge.

The plaintiff in error was tried and convicted for the offense denounced by section 3258 of the Revised Statutes(Comp. St 1916, Sec. 5994).It was the usual indictment of four counts in such cases, and plaintiff in error was convicted on all counts, and assigns as error here the admission in evidence over his objection of the records of two previous convictions of plaintiff in the same court for the same offense.There are two other assignments mentioned in the brief, but not argued, to the effect that the court erred in not permitting the accused to make an uninterrupted statement of his defense to the jury, and the refusal of the court to admit in evidence a letter from one Jule Ingram to Walter Simmons, exculpatory of the latter of any connection with the alleged illicit distillery.

The record shows that during the progress of the trial the defendant elected to take the witness stand in his own behalf, and so became subject to all the rules and tests applicable to any other witness, and was confronted with the record of his previous convictions, the punishment for which may be two years in a...