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45 Ark. 95

Farmer v. State

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided May 15, 1885

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1885-05-15

J. B. Wood, Circuit Judge. 1. This is a prosecution under Sec. 1594., Gantt’s Dig. The indictment is insufficient, because it cannot be ascertained from it in ivhat house it was intended to charge the gaming had been carried on. 2. The evidence fails to show that the gaming was during the period when Appellant had license. 1. The indictment follows the statute, Sec. 1836, Mansf. Dig., and the form in Brockway v. State, 36 Ark., 629.

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently July 1996

3 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1885-05-15

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Smith, Justice.

¶1The appellant, a licensed keeper of a dram-shop, was indicted, under Section 1594 of Gantt’s Digest, for permitting gaming to be carried on in his place of business. He interposed a general demurrer, which was overruled; and afterwards standing mute, the court ordered a plea of not guilty to be entered for him. Upon the trial of the issue thus raised, he was convicted and adjudged to pay a fine.

¶2As the judgment cannot be said to be unsupported by the evidence, we shall consider only the question whether the indictment sufficiently charges the offense. The indictment begins thus: “The grand jury accuse W. F. Farmer of the crime of permitting gaming in his dram-shop.” And the charging part is that the defendant, having a license under the laws of the ¿otate, to keep a dram-shop in Perry county, “ did within the house of him the said W. F. Farmer, knowingly and unlawfully permit and suffer ” certain parties to bet money on a game of cards there played.

¶3The indictment is substantially a copy of that in Brockway v. State, 36 Ark., 629. The objection is that it does not certainly appear in what house of the defendant’s it was intended to charge that the gaming took place—that it might have been in his dwelling-house, or any other out-house owned or occupied by him, as well as in his drinking saloon, though detached or distant therefrom.

¶4The offence is a statutory misdemeanor. And as the indictment follows the language of the statute, and apprises the defendant, with reasonable certainty, of the nature of the accusation against him, so as to enable him to prepare his defence, and to plead the judgment in bar of a subsequent prosecution for the same offence, it is sufficient. State v. Witt, 39 Ark., 216.

¶5Under the indictment it would devolve upon the State to prove that the gaming took place in the saloon, or upon the premises connected therewith. And the testimony in the case satisfies this requirement.

¶6Affirmed.

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