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147 Ala. 110

Hamilton v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided July 6, 1906

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1906-07-06

Heard before Hon. Thomas L. Sowell. The indictment in this case charged that Lula Hamilton and Letha White feloniously took and carried away certain money, the personal property of J. Y. Ledbetter.

Relies on Prater v. State · Grant v. State · Spicer v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1906-07-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently May 1991 · most notably Kennedy v. State (1973), 17 Ala. App. 469 - Montgomery v. State (1920)

28 state decisions

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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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DENSON, J.

¶1Each count of the indictment is sufficiently specific in the description of the property alleged to have ben stolen, and shows by the direct averment that it was lawful money of the United States.— Grant's Case, 55 Ala. 201; Turner’s Case, 124 Ala. 59, 27 South. 272. The demurrer to the indictment ivas properly overruled.

¶2The confession of the defendant was properly admitted as evidence. — Spicer’s Case, 69 Ala. 159.

¶3Charges (a), (b),and (c) hypothesize the description of the property as alleged in the first, second, and third counts of the indictment, respectively, and should have been given. Charge 5 was properly refused, if for no other reason, it pretermits corroboration of the witness of the class named by other evidence in the case.— Frost's Case, 124 Ala. 71, 27 South. 550; Churchwell's Case, 117 Ala. 124, 23 South. 72; Osborn’s Case, 125 Ala. 106, 27 South. 758. Charge 6 was properly refused. A witness may unintentionally swear-falsely to a material fact. — Prater’s Case, 107 Ala. 26, 18 South. 238. It is not necessary to notice the other written charges refused to defendant.

¶4“The' record fails to show that the defendant pleaded to the indictment, or, standing mute, the court caused the plea of not guilty to be entered for him. — Code 1898, § 5262. There can he no trial on the merits in a criminal case until the defendant has pleaded not guilty, or this plea has been entered for him by the court.” — Jackson’s Case, 91 Ala. 55, 8 South. 773, 24 Am. St. Rep. 860. Powell v. Henry & Co., 96 Ala. 412, 11 South. 311.

¶5For the errors pointed out the judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded.

¶6Reversed and remanded.

Weakley, O. J., and Dowdell and Anderson, JJ., concur.
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