Hall v State

Hall v State
1915 OK CR 192
151 P. 487
12 Okl.Cr. 20
Case Number: No. A-2357
Decided: 09/18/1915
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

EVIDENCE Character Evidence.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Appeal from County Court, Okmulgee County; Mark L. Bozarth, Judge.

W.T. Hall was convicted of having unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor, with intent to sell the same, and he appeals. Reversed.

Eaton & Cowley and Alf W. Anderson, for plaintiff in error.

R. McMillan, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

PER CURIAM. The plaintiff in error, W.T. Hall, was convicted at the August, 1914, term of the County Court of Okmulgee county, on a charge of having unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor, with intent to sell the same, and his punishment fixed at a fine of $50.00 and imprisonment in the county jail for a period of thirty days. The serious error complained of in this case is the giving of the following instruction by the trial court:

"You are further instructed that the defendants in this action have offered proof as to their good character in the community in which they live as law abiding citizens. Yet this fact does not entitle the defendants to an acquital in this case, but such facts as good character may be taken into consideration by the jury in determining the guilt or innocence of the defendant."

The attorney general has filed a confession in error, and among other things says that he does not think "that the foregoing instruction is the law of this state that is, to limit the jury or invade the province thereof. `The weight to be attached to evidence

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