West v. State

Citations

• 70 Miss. 598

Syllabus

<p>1. Liquors. Sale without authority of law. Indictment.</p> <p>An indictment is good which charges, generally, a sale of liquor without authority of law. Noi ton v. State, 65 Miss., 297.</p> <p>2.' Same. Local option law of 1886. Indiietment. Allegation of election.</p> <p>Tested by the law in force before the code of 1892 went into effect, a count in an indictment for selling liquor in violation of the local option law of 1886, which fails to aver that said law had been put in force by an election in the county, is bad. Norton v. State, supra.</p> <p>3. Same. Code 1S92, ch. 37. When taking effect. Unlawful retailing.</p> <p>Chapter 37, code 1892, entitled “Dram-shops,” except as to license obtained after April 2, 1892, was not in force until November 1 following, and has no influence on indictments for unlawful retailing found before the chapter took effect.</p> <p>4. Criminal Procedure. Indictment. One count good. Conviction.</p> <p>A demurrer to an indictment containing one good count is properly overruled ; and so of a motion in arrest. But a conviction will not be sustained if the evidence fails to support the good count.</p> <p>5. Chimin am Law. Construction of statute. Import of words.</p> <p>In construing a criminal statute, it is inadmissible to give to words a meaning they do not contain, in order to accomplish an object it may be supposed the law-maker had in view.</p> <p>6. Same. Laws 1890, p. 71. Selling liquors. Receiving order.</p> <p>Accordingly, on the trial of an indictment under ? 2 of the act of 1890 (Laws, p. 71), the words “to sell any such liquors as are therein prohibited,” will not be held to include the mere receipt of an order for liquor to be thereafter sent into the forbidden territory, though it was so sent, and the defendant received pay for the same.</p>