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140 Ala. 165

Wilkerson v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1903

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1903-11-15

Tried before the Hon. J. A. Bilbro. The appellant in this case, Luther A. Wilkerson, was indicted, tried and convicted for selling spirituous, vinous and malt liquors without a license and contrary to law. On the trial of the case the State introduced as a witness one John Kiesler, who testified that on February 19, 1901, he stopped at the defendant’s house in the town of Centre, in Cherokee county, and bought a pint of liquor from him and paid him 40 cents therefor.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Between the fact so elicited and the offense charged against defendant there was no such connection as would warrant an inference that the witness was interested or biased; nor is there any phase of the case which could have been in the least illumined by such fact.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Woodard v. State

Relies on Harris v. State · Hale v. State · Smith v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1903-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently April 1986

10 state decisions

30190319101920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

SHARPE, J.

¶1Defendant was convicted on an indictment drawn under section 5076 of the Code for selling spirituous, vinous or malt liquors without a license. A witness who had been introduced and examined for defendant was, on cross-examination and against objection, required to answer and did answer affirmatively a question by the solicitor as to whether he did not “stand indicted for the same offense with which defendant was being tried in the same court.” This testimony having apparent reference to the identical transaction involved in the trial, was admissible as tending to show a bias on the part of the witness and, therefore, as affecting his credibility.—Clifton v. State, 71 Ala. 473.

¶2Subject to an exception taken by defendant the solicitor was allowed when cross-examining to elicit from one of the defendant’s witnesses that there was an indictment pending in the circuit court against the wit; ness “for public drunkenness.” In this there was error. Between the fact so elicited and the offense charged against defendant there was no such connection as would ■warrant an inference that the witness was interested or biased, nor is there any phase of the case which could *168have been in the least illumined by such fact. It is only a conviction for an infamous crime, that may be proved to discredit a witness under section 1795 of the Code.

¶3There was error also in- the refusal of the written charge requested by defendant.—Hale v. State, 122 Ala. 85; Roberts v. State, Ib. 47; Harris v. State, 96 Ala. 24; Smith v. State, 88 Ala. 73.

¶4The judgment will be reversed and the cause remanded.

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