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89 Ala. 33

Huffman v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1889

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1889-11-15

From the City Court of Montgomery. Tried before the Hon. Thos. M. Arrington.

Relies on Clay v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently October 1980

16 state decisions

4018891890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

STONE, C. J.

¶1The indictment in this case pursues the form given in the Code, and is sufficient. — Form 39, p. 270 of Code, vol. 2; § 3810, same vol.

¶2The verdict in this case must be classed as a special one. Its language is, “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of embezzlement of a sum of money less than twenty-five dol*34lars.” When a special verdict is found, it must affirm every material ingredient of the offense, or no judgment can be rendered upon it. Under tbe authorities, we are not able to affirm that anything was found except what was expressed. Hence we are not permitted to know, or to infer, that the finding implied that the money embezzled was. the property of Sells Brothers, or that it was embezzled in Montgomery county, Alabama. Clay v. State, 43 Ala. 350; Lee v. Campbell, 4 Por. 198. If the verdict had been, “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty,” or “guilty as charged,” and had then added, as a further finding, the value of the property embezzled, this would have been a general verdict, and would have been held sufficient. The finding, in such case, would be referred to the indictment. This may seem to be a narrow point, but we are unwilling to depart from former rulings. We confine this ruling, however, to cases not distinguishable from it.

¶3The testimony of what Scott paid in Georgia, and of the freight paid on the ostriches, could shed no light on the question of defendant’s guilt, and was improperly admitted.

¶4Eeversed and remanded.

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