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217 Ala. 322

116 So 705

Garrison v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided March 22, 1928

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1928-03-22

Relies on Hussey v. State · Armor v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1928-03-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently October 1975

5 state decisions

20192819301940195019601970decided

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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¶1 Response to Certified Question.

SAYRE, J.

¶2 The charge inquired about was properly refused to the defendant in the case out of which the certified question arises.

¶3 Character means reputation, or the general *323 credit which a man has obtained m public opinion. Hussey v. State, 87 Ala. 121, 130, 6 So. 420. Proof of the good character of the defendant in a criminal case is permitted for the reason that it is a circumstance that aids the inference of innocence, and this court has held that good character proved is to be considered by the jury in connection with the whole evidence in the case; “but its value, intrinsic or relative, will vary according to the proof to which it is opposed, and in connection with which it must 'be weighed and estimated by the jury.” Armor v. State, 63 Ala. 176. The likelihood, the probability, that a man of good character has not violated the law depends upon an inference of fact to be drawn by the jury upon consideration of the evidence; there is no presumption of law one way or the other, nor can the court be required to instruct the jury otherwise.

¶4 Let this be certified to the Court of Appeals.

ANDERSON, C. X, and GARDNER and BOULDIN, XL, concur.
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