71 Iowa 87 | Iowa | 1887
II. The petitioner alleges in his petition that the city council had no legal authority to pass the ordinance. It appears that the district court did not pass upon the question of the authority of the city to enact a proper ordinance to punish persons who were found in disorderly houses for unlawful purposes, but held that the section of this ordinance was void for the reason that it fails to prescribe that, to render one guilty of the offense prohibited, he should be unlaw
The court below thought that, as the ordinance imposes upon the accused the burden of showing his lawful presence in a disorderly house, it is void. But it is competent for the legislature to prescribe that an offense may be presumed from an act done. The ordinance in question, as we have seen, is intended to forbid unlawful presence in a disorderly house, and is to be so interpreted. The presence should be charged in the information as unlawful. As a defense, the person charged may show that he was lawfully or innocently in the house. These rules are of constant application in the administration of the criminal law.
We reach the conclusion that the district court erred in discharging the petitioner from custody.
Reversed.