8 Ga. App. 700 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1911
Lead Opinion
The accused was convicted of a violation of section 511 of the Penal Code of 1895, as amended by the act of 1905 (Acts 1905, p. 86), which section, as amended, reads as follows: “Any person who shall throw a rock or other missile at, towards, or into any car of any passenger-train upon any railroad or street-railroad, or shoot any gun, pistol, or firearms of any kind at, towards, or into any such car, or shoot, while in such car, any gun, pistol, or other weapon of any kind, shall be punished,” etc. Penal Code (1910), § 512. The indictment specifically charged that the accused “did unlawfully shoot a pistol and discharge the same while in a passenger-car and a passenger upon the passenger-train of the Georgia and Florida Eailway and in said car and train, contrary to the laws of said State,” etc.
The undisputed evidence in support of the accusation is that* the accused, while a passenger on a passenger-train of the railroad mentioned in the accusation, shot and discharged a pistol from-the platform or the steps of the passenger-coach of the train; and the controlling issue thus made is whether this evidence shows-a violation of the above statute. The trial judge instructed the jury that the act in question constituted a violation of this statute, —in other words, that the language of the statute was broad enough to cover the act of shooting a pistol on the platform or steps of a passenger-train, as well as inside of the train. To use the definite language of the court, “Being on the steps of a passenger-train, or being on the platform, is equivalent to being in the train.” Criminal statutes must be strictly construed, but this does not mean that the strictness must loe so narrow as to emasculate the purpose of the statute or to impair the intention of the legislature. The meaning given to words in a statute should be such as would carry out the full purpose of the legislature in the enactment of such legislation. It would be absurd to contend that the legislature intended that a person inside of a car, shooting out of the window thereof, would be guilty of a violation of this statute, while a person on t1"-' platform or the steps of the car,
Complaint is made that the learned trial judge improperly intimated an opinion on the facts, by a colloquy with the foreman of the jury, set out in the record. The foreman, speaking for the jury, asked the judge if the jury could find the defendant guilty notwithstanding the evidence showed that the shooting was on the platform or steps of the car, while the indictment charged
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. , While the legislature could very properly and profitably have prohibited the discharge of firearms'from trains on railroads, still, in the observance of that strictness of construction which must be maintained as to criminal statutes, I do no.t think that the platform can be included “in the car.”