Harris v. State

Decided November 15, 1893

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1893-11-15

Tried before the Hon. James T. Jones. The indictment charges that the defendant “Frank Harris feloniously took and carried away a part of an outstanding crop of corn, to-wit, two ears of corn the property of Arthur Walker, against the peace, etc. To this indictment the defendant filed a demurrer setting forth the following grounds: First, said indictment fails to allege that the part of the crop stolen was the property of Arthur Walker; second, it fails to show what part of…

Relies on Pierson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1893-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently August 1973

6 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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McCLELLAN, J.

¶1The demurrer to the indictment in this case was manifestly bad, if not frivolous; and the court committed no error in overruling it.

¶2The charge given at the instance of the State was in these words : “Gentlemen of the jury, if you believe the evidence in this case you must find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.” This instruction was erroneous in that it authorized and required a conviction though the jury may not have believed the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. Pierson v. State, 99 Ala. 148. Heath v. State, Ib. 179.

¶3The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed and the cause remanded.