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66 Ga. App. 50

16 S.E.2d 916

Gray v. State

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided October 14, 1941

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1941-10-14

Relies on Lewis v. State · 62 Ga. App. 493 - Morgan v. State · 18 Ga. App. 13 - Autrey v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1941-10-14

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently March 2016

8 state decisions

4019411950196019701980199020002010decided

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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Gardner, J.

¶1 1. A charge to the jury that “the indictment sets out a case against the defendant, that is, it charges a case against the defendant, a violation of a State law” (italics ours) is not an instruction that the indictment is evidence of the guilt of the accused. The court expressly charged, in addition to the law of presumption of innocence, etc., that “the grand jury . . found and returned into this court a true bill!’ against the defendant “charging him with the possession of liquor,” and “his plea of not guilty and the indictment . . form the issue which you are trying and you will determine by your verdict.” While the expression “sets out” may be equivalent, under some contexts, to “establishes,” under the present context it is obviously equivalent to “charges” or “accuses” only.

*51 Decided October 14, 1941. Claude V. Driver, for plaintiff in error. Hal C. Hutchens, solicitor-general, W. A. Foster Jr., contra.

¶2 2. When whisky is found on the premises of the defendant which are in his exclusive control and possession the inference arises that the possession is that of the defendant and is with his knowledge and consent. However, this inference is rebuttable. Dardarian v. State, 55 Ga. App. 286 (190 S. E. 48); Autrey v. State, 18 Ga. App. 13 (2) (88 S. E. 715); Morgan v. State, 62 Ga. App. 493 (8 S. E. 2d, 694); Thomas v. State, 64 Ga. App. 315 (13 S. E. 2d, 92); Lewis v. State, 6 Ga. App. 205 (64 S. E. 701).

¶3 3. The evidence was sufficient to support the verdict of guilty of possessing whisky not bearing the required State revenue stamps.

¶4 Judgment affirmed.

Broyles, G. J., and MacIntyre, J., concur.
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