Case ID: ala-app_16/html/0389-03.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "BROWN, P. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

(78 South. 305)
    METCALF v. STATE.
    (6 Div. 482.)
    (Court of Appeals of Alabama.
    Feb. 26, 1918.)
    1. Miscegenation <&wkey;5 — Evidence of Race.
    That defendant, tried under Code 1907, § 7421, testified in the presence of court and jury, was enough to authorize finding that she was of the negro race.
    2. Miscegenation &wkey;>l — Elements.
    Conviction of defendant, a negress, under Code 1907, § 7421, is not authorized, there being no evidence that the man was White, or that they had lived together in the state of adultery or fornication.
    Appeal from Circuit Court, Marion County; C. P. Almon, Judge.
    Ophelia Metcalf was convicted under Code 1907, § 7421, and appeals.
    Reversed and remanded.
    C. E. Mitchell, of Hamilton, for appellant. F. Loyd Tate, Atty. Gen., and Emmett S. Thigpen, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
   BROWN, P. J.

The appellant was convicted of the offense denounced by section 7421 of the Code of 1907. On the trial, she testified as a witness in her own behalf, and was in the presence of the court and jury, and this was sufficient to authorize the finding that she was of the negro race. However, there was no evidence that Simmons was a white man, nor was there any evidence showing or tending to show that the appellant and Simmons had lived together in the state of adultery or fornication.

The court, on the evidence, erred in not directing a verdict for the defendant, on her request for the affirmative charge. Emanuel Dean v. State, ante, p. 367, 77 South. 979. Eor this error, the judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.

Reversed and remanded.