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23 Ala. App. 135

122 So 186

Coggin v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided April 30, 1929

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1929-04-30

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“But to convict there must be a possession coupled with a guilty scienter,”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 24 Ala. App. 412 - Smith v. State

Relies on 21 Ala. App. 173 - Mathews v. State · 21 Ala. App. 174 - Hutcheson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1929-04-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently December 1979

19 state decisions

100192919301940195019601970decided

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 →

SAMFORD, J.

¶1 The evidence discloses the finding of three empty kegs under defendant’s barn that had the odor of whisky and the finding of a quart fruit jar containing one tablespoon full of whisky under the floor of an outhouse located about 75 yards from defendant’s store, not inclosed and used by the public. The defendant was not at home when the search was made, and there is no evidence tending to connect him with the possession of whisky other than is above set out.

¶2 It is not a violation of law in this state to possess a keg or a hundred kegs having the odor of whisky on or about them. So that, the prosecution must revolve around the tablespoon full of whisky under the floor of tIle (We use the word toilet, but in the country it is not usually called by that name, and this was in the country.)'

¶3 We are familiar with the decision of the Supreme Court holding that the possession of the smallest amount of whisky is a violation of the prohibition statutes, but to convict there must be a possession coupled with a guilty scienter. Hutcheson v. State, 21 Ala. App. 174, 106 So. 206. There is no such evidence in this record. The little house was not locked, was not in any inclosure, was in a grove used indiscriminately by those living near, and nobody testified to ever seeing defendant in it. Suspicion is not sufficient upon which to convict men of crime. For the error in refusing to defendant the general charge, the judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded.

¶4 Reversed and remanded.

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