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16 Ala. App. 584

80 So 158

Bridgeforth v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided June 4, 1918

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1918-06-04

<p>Criminal Law <&wkey;718 — Bemarks of Counsel.</p> <p>Bemark of state’s counsel in bis closing argument, “My experience lias been that it is difficult to get evidence against a bootlegger; they always work and squirm to keep from testifying,” being a reference to a matter of common observation, was not prejudicial error; not being the statement of a substantive fact pertinent to the issue.</p>

Relies on Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Co. v. Gonzalez · Cross v. State · Moulton v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1918-06-04

How this case has been cited

Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently August 2006 · most notably Anderson v. State (1922), 18 Ala. App. 430 - Windom v. State (1922)

2 federal appellate · 27 state decisions

1201918192019301940195019601970198019902000decided

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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SAMPOBD, J.

¶1 From the bill of exceptions, it appears that in open court, while the trial was in progress, and while the state’s counsel was making his closing argument, he made the following statement to the jury:

“I don’t know what your experience is, but my experience has been that it is difficult to get evidence against a bootlegger; they always work' and squirm to keep from testifying.”

¶2 This remark of the solicitor, made in the! course of his address to the jury, was a reference in argument to a matter of common observation, and, if not entirely justified, was not the statement of a substantive fact' pertinent to the issue (Cross v. State, 68 Ala. 476-484), nor do we think that the issues, the parties, and the general atmosphere of the ease were such as to render the remark prejudicial error (Moulton v. State [Sup.] 74 South. 454; 2 Birmingham Ry. Co. v. Gonzalez, 183 Ala. 273, 61 South. 80, Ann. Cas. 1916A, 543). The foregoing is not in conflict with the line of cases cited in appellant’s brief, but, as was said in Moulton’s Case, supra, “each case of this character must be decided on its own merits.”

¶3 We find no error in the record, and the judgment i« affirmed.

¶4 Affirmed.

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