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147 Ala. 146

Hainey v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 30, 1906

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1906-06-30

Circuit Court. Heard before IXon. W. W. Haralson. The state was permitted to prove, over the objection of defendant, that at the time of the carrying, the defendant was drunk or under the influence of whiskey. The state was also allowed to prove that Sam Hainey and the defendant were brothers, and that Sam Hainey was drunk also, and that the defendant stopped the marshal and his assistant while in the discharge of their duty in carrying Sam Hainey, under arrest, to town.

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1981

4 state decisions

Relies on Gainey v. State · Ramsey v. State · Wells v. American Mortgage Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1906-06-30

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DENSON, J.

¶1The defendant was convicted for carrying’ a pistol concealed about his person.

¶2The defendant offered no evidence, and the point in the case on its merits was whether the pistol, which the testimony showed the defendant had, was carried in such manner as not to he discernable by ordinary observation; and this was a jury question. — Smith’s Case, 96 Ala. 66, 11 South. 71; Ramsey’s Case, 91 Ala. 29, 8 South. 568; Drigger’s Case, 123 Ala. 426, 26 South. 512.

¶3Evidence that the defendant was drunlc at the time the state’s witness testified he saw him with the pistol, was not an issuable fact in the case, and was patently immaterial. Its only tendency was to unduly prejudice the jury against the defendant. The court erred in admitting it. — Dean’s Case, 98 Ala. 71, 13 South. 318; Gainey’s Case, 141 Ala. 74, 37 South. 355. We cannot say that the admission of the evidence was not injurious to the defendant’s case, as has been suggested by the attorney general in his brief. What the state’s witness was doing at the time he saw the defendant with the pistol may have been competent as tending to show that he was, or was not, in a position to see the defendant and the pistol, and the court properly overruled the objection calling for such evidence. But the witness’s answer was not entirely responsive to the question, and those parts of it that defendant moved to exclude should have been excluded.

¶4Nor have we been able to discover the materiality of the evidence of the relationship between Dick' and Sam Hainey. Neither was examined as a witness, and whether they were brothers or otherwise related, or not related at all, had no tendency to elucidate any issue in the case.

¶5The defendant had the benefit of charges 1 and 4 refused to him in other charges given at his request.

¶6*149For the errors pointed out, the judgment of conviction is reversed and the cause remanded.

¶7Reversed and remanded.

Weakley, C. J., and. Haralson and Simpson, JJ., concur.'
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