110 Ala. 19 | Ala. | 1895
The adjoining counties of Butler and Conecuh each have a statute prohibiting the sale &c. of intoxicants. The statutes are not the same in language or in substance. They differ both in the definition of the offense intended to be created and in the punishment to be inflicted therefor. — Acts 1886-87, pp. 665, 695, 700; Acts 1888-89, p. 512. The appellant, McKay, was indicted by the grand jury of Conecuh county for' selling vinous, spirituous or malt liquors “without license and contrary to law,” &c. Under this indictment he was tried and convicted in the circuit court as for a violation of a prohibitory statute, and not as for a sale without license under the general law, and from that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.
On the trial the evidence showed without conflict that the sale charged to have been made took place, if at all, in Butler county, but within a quarter of a mile of the boundary line between the counties of Butler and Cone-cuh. The court in its oral charge to the jury used the following language : “I charge you that at the time the offense charged in the indictment is alleged to have taken place, there was in existence in the county of Butler a local prohibition law at the place where the defendant is charged to have sold the whiskey, and if the defendant sold the whiskey in the county of Butler, and it was
Reversed and remanded.