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67 Ala. 87

Street v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1880

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1880-12-15

Indictment for Carrying Concealed Weapons. Appeal from Etowah Circuit Court. Tried before Hon. L. E. Box. Henry Street was indicted, at the fall term, 1879, of the Circuit Court of Etowah county, for “ carrying a pistol concealed about bis person.” One West testified, on tbe trial, that he and three or four neighbors went to defendant’s house, and started to go thence to the river .to bathe.

Relies on Duvall v. State · Bell's Adm'r v. Troy · Ross v. Pearson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1880-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently December 1948

8 state decisions

301880189019001910192019301940decided

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.

¶1— The first charge asked is evidently incomplete, and we will not consider it. It is entirely true that if a pistol is so carried as that persons about the defendant can see it with ordinary observation, then it is not concealed within the meaning of the statute. To constitute the offense denounced by the statute, the pistol must be so carried or worn, as that persons near enough to see it, if not concealed or hidden, cannot see it. Charge No. 2, requested by the defendant and refused by the court, was evidently intended to assert this proposition. The question is, does it express the idea with sufficient clearness, to relieve it from the imputation of involvement or obscurity. — -1 Brick Dig. 344, § 130; Bell v. Troy, 35 Ala. 184; 1 Brick. Dig. 339, §§ 59, 60, 61. To authorize a reversal for a refusal to charge as requested, it is not always enough that the request asserts .a legal prop*89osition, correct in itself. It must be correct, in reference to the evidence in the case. Charges should be based on the tendencies of the testimony. — Martin v. Hill, 42 Ala. 108; Ross v. Pearson, 21 Ala. 473.

¶2Construing the charge requested by the principles stated above, we think its tendency was to confuse and mislead the jury. New men, not members of the legal profession, would readily understand the charge as asked, to express the simple definition of concealment, as given above. It would require reflection and close examination, to detect its scope. In addition to this, to justify the defendant’s acquittal, it was necessary that the pistol should be so worn or carried, as that persons near enough to see it if not hidden, could see it with ordinary observation. It was not enough that it could be seen, when the defendant took off his coat,for,!by some accident, the skirt of the coat was so displaced as to expose it to view. We think the charge, if given, had a tendency to mislead the jury in this respect. — Duvall v. The State, 63 Ala. 12.

¶3Affirmed.

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