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43 Ala. 17

Fisher v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1869

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1869-01-15

From the Circuit Court of Perry. Tried before the Hon. B. L. Whelan. The indictment in this case charged that “Edward Fisher broke into and entered the smoke-house of Jefferson Watts, in which meat and salt, were at the time kept, for use or deposit, with intent to steal,” against the peace, &c. At the fall term, 1868, of the circuit court of Perry, the pris-' oner was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the penitentiary for two years.

Cited in Cyclopedic (1922)’s definition of “Burglary”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1869-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1939

4 state decisions

2018691870188018901900191019201930decided

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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PECK, C. J.

¶1There is no error in the refusal of the court to give the charges asked. We hold the smoke-house, on the evidence in this case, as a legal proposition, is within the curtilage, and the breaking and entering sufficient, as" far as they are concerned, to make out the crime of burglary. The front and door of the building being in the yard of the' dwelling house, fixes the character of the building, as within the curtilage, although the rear part thereof was not within the yard of the dwelling-house, and although the breaking was in that part of the building. Any breaking that was sufficient to enable the prisoner to take the meat out through the breach, with his hands, is a breaking sufficient, in such a case. The evidence of the intent shows it to have been feloneous, notwithstanding the meat was put between the ceiling and weather-boarding of the building, on a time when he went into it on the business of the *21mistress of the house, and was then intrusted with the'key of the building for that purpose.

¶2We are satisfied with the conviction and judgment in the court below; they are, therefore, affirmed, at the cost of the appellant.

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