Potts v State

Potts v State
1911 OK CR 512
118 P. 1113
6 Okl.Cr. 687
Case Number: No. A-787
Decided: 11/24/1911
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

Appeal from Kiowa County Court; J.W. Mansell, Judge.

John Potts was convicted of violating the prohibitory law, and appeals. Reversed and remanded.

O.B. Riegal, for plaintiff in error.

Smith C. Matson, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Andrew Wood, of counsel), for the State.

PER CURIAM. Plaintiff in error was convicted in the county court of Kiowa county at the January, 1910, term, upon a charge of transporting whisky from the south side of Main street in the town of Manitou, Tillman county, Oklahoma, to the north side of said street in said town in Kiowa county, Oklahoma. A number of errors are complained of in the petition in error and brief; among others, error of the trial court in giving the following instruction:

"The defendant is always presumed to be innocent until his guilt is established by competent testimony beyond a reasonable doubt, and unless the evidence in this case does this, you will find the defendant `not guilty,' but under the plea of the defendant in this cause, it will be the duty of the defendant to show to your satisfaction that the whisky was an interstate shipment, and that he was conveying the same to his own home, after having received the same from the interstate shipper."