Court Opinion

ID: 9691107
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:10:22.588548+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:10.523959
License: Public Domain

CATES, Judge
(concurring).
I wish to add to Judge PRICE’S able opinion an extension as to the aspects of conspiracy. There was evidence from which the jury might have found Berness and Wright combined to carry a pint of whiskey from a wet county into a dry county. Also, it could be said that they combined to ride in and to have the car driven by one of them when both were intoxicated to a degree that would make the driving of the car by either of them an unlawful act.
Not all agreements, even if for unlawful ends, are conspiracies, Miles v. State, 58 Ala. 390. Moreover, the defendant, had he asked for it, would have been entitled to a further instruction to the jury on criminal responsibility pointing out that the latitude of the implied agency of one actor in a conspiracy for his fellows varies proportionately with the flagrancy and viciousness of the object of the conspiracy. Williams v. State, 81 Ala. 1, 1 So. 179.
The defendant’s remedy was to have asked for further charges, Patterson v. State, 37 Ala.App. 161, 66 So.2d 191.
In my view, the mere presence of the two together drunk in a moving vehicle is not alone proof of a conspiracy. However, the continuance of the joint venture by one in control of the car is sufficient to make him an abettor, a principal in the second degree as to the homicide. The common law differences between the chief felon and his helpers having been abolished, the abettor is equally responsible. Code 1940, T. 14, § 14.