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92 Ala. 73

Stokes v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1890

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1890-11-15

From the City Court- of Montgomery. Tried before the Hon. Thos. H. Arrington. The appellant in this case, Nora Stokes, was indicted, tried and convicted of the offense of being a night-walker. The indictment contained four counts. The first three counts charged her with being a vagrant, a common prostitute, and a common drunkard. The fourth count, and the only one upon which a conviction was asked, was in words as follows: “The grand jury . . further charge that . . .

Relies on Thomas v. State

Cited in Ballentine's (1916)’s definition of “Night-walking” · Black's (1910)’s definition of “Night”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1890-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently January 1969

3 state decisions

1018901900191019201930194019501960decided

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 →

COLEMAN, J.

¶1-The defendant was convicted of the offense of night-walking. A night-walker has been defined to be one who has a habit of being abroad at night for the purpose of committing some crime, of disturbing the peace, or doing some wrongful or wicked act-. Night-walking, at- common law, is a common nuisance. — 1 Bishop Cr. Law, (7th Ed.) § 502, and note. Night-walkers are persons who stroll the streets at night for immoral purposes, or, as charged in the indictment,, “for the unlawful purpose of picking up men for lewd intercourse and are indictable at common law.- — 2 Whart. Cr. Law, § 1416. Persons who eaves-drop men’s houses, “to hearken after discourse, and thereupon to frame slanderous and mischievous tales, to cast men’s gates, carts, and the like,” are night-walkers.— Thomas v. State, 55 Ala. 260. The expectation of gain is not an essential ingredient to constitute the offense of “night-walking,” and the refusal of the trial court to give a charge which asserted this proposition, was correct.

¶2The evidence fully warranted the charges given at the request of 'the solicitor. The sufficiency of the evidence was a question for the jury.

¶3Affirmed.

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