114 Ga. 79 | Ga. | 1901
The accused was placed upon trial in the city court of Griffin, upon an accusation charging that he did, on the first day of March, 1901, sell by retail spirituous liquors to a named person and to other persons to the accuser unknown, without first having obtained a license from the proper authorities of the county, and without having taken the oath prescribed by law. It appeared from the evidence that the accused had sold a quart of whisky to the person named in the accusation, in October or November, 1900, and that he had sold a quart of whisky to another person some time in the fall of that year. There was no evidence of any other sales by the accused. There was a verdict of guilty, and the case is here upon a bill of exceptions assigning error upon the refusal of the judge to grant anew trial.
On March 1, 1901, the county authorities of Spalding county were authorized to grant licenses to persons to sell spirituous liquors by retail. It is manifest, from the terms of the accusation that it was the intention of the pleader to charge the accused with a violation of the general law of the State which prohibits the sale of liquors by retail without license from the proper authorities of the county; the offense charged being clearly a violation of the Penal Code, § 431. At the time that the sales shown by the evidence took place, that is, in the.fall of 1900, the sale of liquors by Tetail was prohibited altogether in Spalding county under the terms of the general local option liquor law of the State, the provisions of which were of force in Spalding county, and continued of force in that county until January 21, 1901. The accusation was a good
Judgment reversed.