Case Name: Harris v. The State
Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1922-02-16
Citations: 28 Ga. App. 241
Docket Number: 13117
Parties: Harris v. The State.
Judges: Luke, J., concurs. Broyles, C. J., dissents.
Reporter: Georgia Appeals Reports
Volume: 28
Pages: 241–241

Head Matter:
13117.
Harris v. The State.
Decided February 16, 1922.
Indictment for misdemeanor; from Fulton superior court — Judge Humphries. November 6, 1921.
Possession and sale of intoxicating liquor by Sidney Harris were charged in the indictment, and the verdict was guilty. A deputy sheriff testified that he and other deputies found in an alley in Atlanta an automobile in which was a suit-case full of corn whisky, and saw the defendant Harris standing by the automobile, with a foot on the running board, and saw two men on the opposite side, with a gallon can of corn whisky on the ground by them; that one of them ran, and that Harris and the other man (Cochran) were arrested, and Cochran fired two shots from a revolver, killing one of the deputies and wounding Harris, and ran away; that the automobile and the whisky were the property of Cochran, and “ that this defendant Sydney Harris admitted that he rode on the back seat of the automobile with Cochran from Buck-head, Morgan county, Ga., to Atlanta, Ga., and that he had worked for . . Cochran on his farm for two years and was so employed by him at the time he left Buckhead, Ga., but denied that he had anything at all to do with the corn whisky; and the witness never saw the defendant in possession of any whisky.” The defendant, in his statement at the trial, denied knowledge of the whisky.
R. E. Church, Cobb & Foster, for plaintiff in error.
John A. Boykin, solicitor-general, E. A. Stephens, contra.

Opinion:
BloodwortH, J.
The defendant was convicted on circumstantial evidence. The facts proved did not exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save tnat of the guilt of the accused, and the judge erred in overruling the motion for a new trial.
Judgment reversed.
Luke, J., concurs. Broyles, C. J., dissents.