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130 Ala. 127

Butler v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1900

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1900-11-15

Tiled before the Hon. William E. Si-ceggs. The prosecution against the appellant was commenced by W. S. Taylor making the following affidavit before 1). I). Ford, a justice of the peace in Morgan county; “Before me, 1). I).

Relies on Miles v. State · Johnson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1900-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently December 2009 · most notably 946 So. 2d 536 - Ex Parte Seymour (2006), 20 Ala. App. 514 - Robertson v. State (1924)

32 state decisions

8019001910192019301940195019601970198019902000decided

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, C. J.

¶1The affidavit or sworn complaint made before the justice of the peace initiating this prosecution, and upon Avhich Butler was tried in the justice’s court, is wholly insufficient as the basis for a warrant of arrest, or further prosecution of the defendant, for that it is not the affirmation of the existence of probable cause for believing and the belief of affiant, but the affirmation of his mere opinion that the offense of larceny of four sheep has been committed and *129that William Butler is guilty thereof. Such a complaint will not support the judgment of the justice, nor the statement filed by the solicitor in the county court nor the judgment of the county court. The judgment of the county 'Court is invalid, and no valid judgment can be rendered on this complaint.—Johnson v. State, 82 Ala. 29; Miles v. State, 94 Ala. 106. That judgment is, therefore, reversed and set aside, and a judgment will be here entered discharging the defendant.

¶2Beversed and rendered.

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