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58 Ala. 391

Gore v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1877

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1877-12-15

Tried before tbe Hon. John Hendebson. The defendants, Charles Gore, and America Hester, were indicted at the fall term, 1876, of said court, for “ living together in a state of adultery or fornication.” The only evidence against tbe defendant, Hester, was tbe confession of Gore, made under tbe following circumstances: A witness for tbe State testified, that in tbe summer of 1876, be went to said Hester’s bouse, where be bad been called by ber to see a child of bers, which…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 1982

10 state decisions

30187718801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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STONE, J.

¶11-2. The bill of exceptions states that it contains the substance of all the evidence. If this be so, it contains no evidence authorizing a conviction of the female defendant, Hester. The sufficiency of the evidence against Gore was a question for the jury, under proper instructions. Gore’s confessions, if he made any, were not evidence against Hester. To justify a verdict of guilty in a criminal prosecution, the jury must be satisfied, from the proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the offense charged was committed, and within the time which the statute does not bar. And proof, showing only that one defendant is guilty, even of the offense charged in this indictment, does not justify the conviction of the other. Confessions of one defendant, made apart from the other, are not evidence against that other. The charge refused, numbered 4, should haye been given.

¶23. The present record shows that no judgment has been rendered on the verdict of guilty. No appeal lies from a verdict, until judgment is rendered thereon. — Code of 1876, §§ 4980,3916. It follows that the appeal in this case must be *393dismissed, tbat the case may be proceeded in, in the Circuit Court.

¶34. The question will arise, what should be done with this case, when it is again called up in the court below ? No judgment having been rendered in that court, the proceedings are still in fieri. Judgment should be arrested, the verdict set aside, and a new trial granted.

¶4Appeal dismissed.

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