43 Ark. 413 | Ark. | 1884
The statute that was supposed to be violated is the 22d section of the general election law of January 23, 1875, This provides that “all dram-shops or drinking-houses in any county, city, town, or township shall be closed during the day of any election held therein, and the succeeding night, and any person selling or giving away any intoxicating liquors during said day or night, in any county, city, town or township in which any such election may be held, shall be punished by fine, &c.”
Penal statutes, in declaring what acts shall constitute an offence, and in prescribing the punishment to be inflicted, are to be construed rigorously. “The general words shall be restrained tor the benefit ol him against whom the penalty is inflicted.” The case of an offender must fall both within the words and the mischiefs to be remedied. Potter’s Dwarris on Statutes, 245; Grace v. State, 40 Ark., 97.
Reversed and remanded with directions to arrest the judgment.