Opinion
(Filed 29 March, 1904.)
INTOXICATING LIQUORS — Instructions — Questions for Jury.
An instruction, on a prosecution for unlawfully keeping liquor for sale, that if defendant had whiskey in his possession he would be guilty of keeping it unlawfully, was erroneous, it being for the jury to determine from all the evidence whether he was guilty as charged.
INDICTMENT against Robert Blackman, heard by Judge M. H. Justice and a jury, at November Term, 1903, of UNION. From a verdict of guilty, and judgment thereon, the defendant appealed.
Robert D. Gilmer, Attorney-General, and Adams, Jerome Armfield for the State.
Redwine Stack for the defendant.
His Honor said to the jury that the first question to decide was "whether the man had the whiskey in his possession; if he did, that would make him guilty of keeping it unlawfully." The defendant excepted.
In any point of view, the instruction was erroneous. The jury should have been permitted, upon the whole of the evidence, to say whether or not the defendant was guilty, as charged. For this error, without passing upon the other exceptions, there must be a
New trial.
(684)