Opinion
5 Div. 382.
January 10, 1922.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Lee County; Lum Duke, Judge.
Cleve Barnes was convicted of violating the Prohibition Law, and he appeals. Affirmed.
The indictment is as follows:
The grand jury of said county charge that, before the finding of this indictment, and after January 25, 1919, Cleve Barnes distilled, made, or manufactured alcoholic, spirituous, malted, or mixed liquors or beverages, a part of which was alcohol.
The grand jury of said county further charge that, before the finding of this indictment, and after the 25th day of January, 1919, cleve Barnes distilled, made, or manufactured alcoholic, spirituous, malted, or mixed liquors or beverages, a part of which mixed liquors or beverages was alcohol.
The grand jury of said county further charge that, before the finding of this indictment, and more than 60 days after the 30th day of September, 1919, Cleve Barnes manufactured, sold, gave away, or had in his possession a still, apparatus, appliance, or a device or substitute therefor, to be used for the purpose of manufacturing prohibited liquors or beverages, against the peace and dignity of the state of Alabama.
The demurrers were, in effect, that the allegations of the indictment were not sufficiently definite and certain to inform the defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation. It fails to aver that the offense charged was committed prior to January 16, 1920. It does not charge any offense of which this court has jurisdiction. Demurrers to the second count especially were as follows: It does not aver that the liquors therein referred to contained alcohol; and the allegations are in the alternative, and the charge that the defendant made malt liquors does not state an offense against the laws of Alabama or of the United States.
Pleas of the defendant referred to are that this court had no jurisdiction since Congress of the United States under grant of power contained in the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America has made the facts therein alleged to constitute a violation of the laws of the United States, and only the federal court of the United States had jurisdiction to try such a case.
Charge 7, refused to the defendant, is as follows:
I charge you, gentlemen of the jury, that if you believe that the only act of this defendant in attempting to make the prohibited liquors, as are mentioned in the first count in the indictment, consisted only in carrying wood to the still, and that same had not been used for such, then you must acquit him of the charge of attempting to make such liquor.
N.D. Denson Sons, of Opelika, for appellant.
Brief of counsel did not reach the Reporter.
Harwell G. Davis., Atty. Gen., for the State.
Brief of counsel did not reach the Reporter.
The motion to strike defendants's plea was properly granted. Powell v. State, ante, p. 101, 90 So. 138.
Defendant's demurrers to the indictment were properly overruled. Taylor v. State, 17 Ala. App. 579, 88 So. 205.
There was evidence tending to prove the state's case and therefore the general charge as requested by the defendant was properly refused.
The carrying of wood to the still for the purpose of making whisky, was aiding or abetting, and hence charge 7 was properly refused.
We find no error in the record, and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.