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86 Mass. 587

Commonwealth v. Williams

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 15, 1862

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1862-10-15

<p>One to whom money has been delivered in exchange for intoxicating liquor belonging to a third person cannot be allowed, in the trial of an indictment against him for selling the liquor in violation of law, to prove that several days afterwards he returned the money to the person from whom he received it, with a letter saying that the person for whom he acted did not sell liquor and wished the money to be given back.</p> <p>Assuming without authority to act as agent for the owner does not exonerate one from criminal responsibility for selling intoxicating liquor; but merely acting as messenger, and transmitting the liquor from the seller to the buyer, and the money from the buyer to the seller, does not render one criminally responsible.</p>

Decided 1862-10-15

Merrick, J.

¶1The evidence offered by" the defendant was rightly excluded. The writing and sending of the letter were *589his acts, and the contents of it were only his statement or declaration. And as they occurred some days after the transaction which is charged in the indictment as an illegal sale of intoxicating liquor, proof of them upon the trial was not competent for any purpose; neither to explain nor to justify his conduct. A party cannot thus at any period subsequently to the commission of an offence, or the doing of an act alleged to be criminal, make evidence for himself to be used in his own defence. It is only when his acts or declarations constitute a part of the res gestee that he can avail himself of them to show his innocence, or what is the true character of the act which is made the subject or proof of an accusation against him. But to this end it is essential that they should be concomitant with the principal act and connected with it, either as an inducement to its being done, or as a consequence necessarily or naturally resulting from it. 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 108,110.

¶2The question of fact involved in the issue to be tried was submitted to the jury under instructions which contained an accurate statement of the law applicable thereto; and the reason assigned by the presiding judge is sufficient to justify his refusal to adopt those he was requested to give.

¶3 Exceptions overruled.

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