Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

170 Ala. 1

White v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 19, 1911

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1911-01-19

Heard, before Hon. Armstead Brown. Jim White was convicted of bastardy and he appeals. In bastardy proceedings it is sufficient to show the guilt of the accused to the reasonable satisfaction of the jury. — JaisIo v. The State, 129 Ala. 1; Miller v. The State, 110 Ala. 69; 5 Cyc. 664.

Relies on Miller v. State · Lusk v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1911-01-19

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently August 1951

3 state decisions

1019111920193019401950decided

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 →

DOWDELL, C. J.

¶1The measure of proof necessary to warrant a conviction in a prosecution for bastardy is that the evidence must reasonably satisfy the jury of the guilt of the defendant. To this extent the burden *2of proof is on the prosecution.Lusk v. State, 129 Ala. 1; 30 South. 33; Miller v. State, 110 Ala. 69, 20 South. 392. The trial court, upon the written request of the defendant, so charged the jury.

¶2If the charge which was refused to the defendant, and which contained the statement, viz., “and unless the jury believe the evidence so strongly as to be convinced of the truth of the statements in the complaint to a reasonable, honest certainty,” etc., meant more than that the jury should be reasonably satisfied, it was an erroneous statement of the law, and was properly refused; and, on the other hand, if it did not, then it finds substantial duplication in the charge given for the defendant, and for that reason there was no error in its refusal.

¶3This being the only question presented, and finding no reversible error in the record, the judgment will be affirmed.

¶4Affirmed.

Anderson, Mayfield, and Sayre, JJ., concur.
/170/ala/1 · .json · Public domain