25 Conn. 6 | Conn. | 1856
This is an information against the prisoner, under the 29th section of the act of 1854, for the suppression of intemperance. The offence is described in the act, as “being- found intoxicated,” and is the same offence as being found drunk, which has been a statute offence in this state, from a remote period.
By the seventeenth section of the act of 1854, it is provided “ if any person shall be found in a state of intoxica
The objects of the two sections are entirely different; the 17th is to prevent the sale of liquor, the 29th is to prevent intoxication, by punishing the drunkard. Now the 29th section contains the words 'found intoxicated,” in the description of the offence, and if this word be important, or has any distinct meaning in describing the offence, the present complaint is defective, for the word found is not in it, nor any equivalent word, but the defendant is only charged with having been intoxicated on a certain day. We can not wholly discard the word in looking after the statute offence, especially in construing a penal statute, although it may be true that the condition of having been intoxicated, is the offence aimed at by the law, in section 29th, whether or not the person was, at the time, seen, or, as the statute says, found in that condition. Practically, the distinction is of very little if any importance, as no person, probably, has been prosecuted for drunkenness, who was not, at the time he was drunk, seen to be so; but it might be otherwise, and we do not feel at liberty to discard from the act which makes the crime, any circumstance which enters into its description or definition. We think it not at all unlikely, that the popular belief is, that having been intoxicated, and being found intoxicated, mean about the same thing, and that this com
We advise judgment for the prisoner.
In this opinion the other judges, Stores and Hinman, concurred.
Complaint insufficient.