Court Opinion

ID: 9586657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:13:46.781683+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:46.885657
License: Public Domain

Gardner, Presiding Judge,
dissenting. This case was assigned to me and I wrote it substantially as shown by what is now the majority opinion, except that I set out the evidence as shown by the record. It has been my contention throughout the study and discussion of this case that the defendant was guilty of a separate crime on each occasion when he stole water from the City of Gainesville. The record shows that the grand jury of Hall County returned a true bill against the defendant and that a petty jury found him guilty. The evidence set out in the majority opinion is meager, not at all full, but it is very clear to me that the evidence, as shown in the record, is amply sufficient to show that the jury was correct in finding the defendant guilty. I have always had a great respect for the jury system and it is seldom that I find their conclusions subject to reversal by an appellate court. The case now before us is one which makes me proud of the jurors who arrived at what I consider an absolutely correct verdict—in fact it is my studied conviction that any other verdict would have been a miscarriage of justice, under the record before this court, keeping in mind that I recognize the right of my colleagues to think otherwise.