25 Del. 482 | New York Court of General Session of the Peace | 1911
charging the jury:
Gentlemen of the jury: — Levin Hastings, the prisoner, is charged in this indictment with selling, in this county, on June 11th, A. D. 1911, spirituous liquor, to wit, Jamaica ginger, to one Arris Kinney, the same not then and there being sold for medicinal or sacramental purposes.
The indictment in this case is based on what is commonly known as the local option law, it being Chapter 65, Volume 24, Laws of Delaware, and approved March 21st, 1907, which law in part provides: “It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, firm, company, association or corporation or the agent, officer or servant of any firm, company, association or. corporation, to sell spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, except for medicinal or sacramental purposes” within certain districts in this state; Sussex County now being one of these districts.
The state produced evidence to prove that a clerk in the store of Levin Hastings, at Delmar, in this county, at that store on the tenth day of June, of the present year, sold spirituous liquor, to wit, Jamaica ginger, to Arris Kinney for purposes other than medicinal or sacramental.
The accused has requested the court to give the jury binding instructions to find a verdict of “not guilty”. This we decline to do for reasons appearing later in the charge.
We find the law in this respect well stated in King’s case, reported in 58 Miss. 740, 38 Am. Rep. 344. The court in that case said:
“ One authorized to sell medicines ought not to be held guilty of violating the laws against retailing, because the purchaser of a mixture containing alcohol misuses it, and becomes intoxicated; but, on the other hand, these laws cannot be evaded by selling as a beverage intoxicating liquors containing drugs, barks or seed which have medicinal qualities. If the other ingredients are medicinal, and the alcohol is used as a necessary preservative or vehicle for them, if, from all the facts it appears that the sale is of the other ingredients as a medicine, and not of the liquor as a beverage, the seller is protected; but if the drugs or roots are mere pretences of medicines, shadows and devices under which an illegal traffic is to be conducted, they will be but shadows when interposed for protection against criminal prosecution.”
It would not be a sufficient defence in every case for a person accused of selling spirituous liquor, contrary to the provisions of the statute, to say that he has asked the purchaser for what purpose he was buying the same, and that the purchaser repliedit
If you are satisfied from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, that the accused is guilty of the offence charged against him, within the interpretation of the statute as we have made it to you, your verdict should be guilty, while on the other hand, if you believe from the evidence that the defendant is not guilty, or entertain a reasonable doubt as to his guilt, your verdict should be not guilty.
Verdict, not guilty.