Kennan v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 122 Va. 831
• 94 S.E. 186
• 1917 Va. LEXIS 100

Syllabus

<p>1917. 1. Indictment and Information-Insufficiency of Indictment.- When the indictment may be true, and yet the defendant is not necessarily guilty of the offense charged, it is</p> <p>insufficient. 2. Intoxicating Liquors-Prohibition Act-Indictment-Time of Offense.-At the January term, 1917, of the Circuit Court of Clarke county, an indictment was found against defendant charging that he “did within one year last past preceding the finding of the indictment unlawfully give away ardent spirits.” The charge in the indictment that the defendant did unlaw-fully give away ardent spirits within one year next to the finding of the indictment, embraces a period of time ante-rior to November 1, 1916, after which date the prohibition by its terms went into effect. Previous to that time it was not necessarily unlawful t.o give away ardent spirits. There-fore, in such case, time was of the essence of the offense j and it was essential for the indictment to charge that the gift of ardent spirits imputed to the defendant occurred after the act became operative, and not before that time, although within one year prior to the finding of the</p>