Opinion
8 Div. 697.
April 18, 1933.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; A. E. Hawkins, Judge.
Orville Crawford was convicted of bastardy, and he appeals.
Reversed and rendered.
Proctor Snodgrass, of Scottsboro, for appellant.
The prosecution, not having been commenced within one year from the birth of a child, and defendant not meanwhile having acknowledged or supported the child, is barred. Code 1923, § 3422; Roszell v. State, 19 Ala. App. 462, 98 So. 35. The statute is clear and unambiguous. "Meanwhile" means the time between the birth of the child and the commencing of the prosecution. 40 Cyc. 18; Bozeman v. State, 7 Ala. App. 151, 61 So. 604; Louisville N. R. Co. v. W. U. T. Co., 195 Ala. 124, 71 So. 118, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 696; Birmingham v. So. Exp. Co., 164 Ala. 529, 51 So. 159; Daley v. State, 13 Ala. App. 310, 69 So. 338; Blake v. State, 178 Ala. 407, 59 So. 623; Ex parte Pepper, 185 Ala. 284, 64 So. 112; Edwards v. Doster-Northington, 214 Ala. 640, 108 So. 862.
Thos. E. Knight, Jr., Atty. Gen., for the State.
Brief did not reach the Reporter.
The defendant was charged by affidavit of prosecutrix with being the father of her bastard child. The affidavit was made before A.D. Kirby, notary public and ex officio justice of the peace, on April 11, 1932. The child was born December 3, 1930, more than twelve months before the beginning of the prosecution. The evidence tended to prove that the defendant recognized his responsibility for the pregnancy of prosecutrix, before the birth of the child, but not afterwards.
The sole question is the construction of the statute, Code 1923, § 3422, and the limitation of prosecution as fixed by that section. It seems to us, there is little room for construction, the word "meanwhile" can only refer to the time between the birth of the child and the beginning of the prosecution. Roszell v. State, 19 Ala. App. 462, 98 So. 35; 40 Corpus Juris, 19, note 81a.
The prosecution in this case having been begun more than twelve months after the birth of the child, and the defendant not having, after the birth of the child and within twelve months of the beginning of the prosecution, acknowledged or supported the child, the defendant was entitled to be discharged.
The judgment is reversed, and the judgment will here be rendered discharging the defendant.
Reversed and rendered.