Hobson v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1870

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1870-06-15

Afheah from the Circuit Court of Hale, Tried before Hon. M. 3.

Relies on Northcot v. State · State v. Pierce · Johnson v. State

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

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently November 1933

6 state decisions

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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B. E. SAEFOLD, J.

¶1The appellant was prosecuted under §3733 of the Revised Code, for malicious injury to animals.

¶2The real essence of this offense is malice towards the owner of the animal injured. — Northcot v. The State, 43 Ala. 330; Hill v. The State, 43 Ala. 335; 37 Ala. 459; 7 Ala. 728.

¶3The two charges asked should have been given.

¶4It is not indispensable to a conviction that the defendant did or said any thing, either before or after the commission of the act, indicative of express malice towards the owner. Malice may be inferred, if the injury is unlawful, from the instrument used or the wantonness of the deed, and from any attendant circumstances which would justify the inference in other crimes where malice is an essential constituent.

¶5The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded. The prisoner will be kept in custody until discharged by due course of law.