Court Opinion

ID: 7809976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:11:43.784538+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:26.624685
License: Public Domain

HART, J., (after stating the facts). It is contended by counsel for the defendant that the court erred in refusing to give instruction No. 5 asked for by him. The instruction reads as follows: “If you find from the evidence that the witness Parker, did not purchase the liquor from Malone, but was acting as his agent and that he was an accomplice in the sale alleged to have been made by the witness, Parker, to other persons, then unless you find from the evidence in the case that the said witness, Parker, has been corroborated on some material fact in this transaction, you will find the defendant not guilty.” The Attorney General first contends that there is no evidence upon which to predicate this instruction. He contends that the testimony of Chris Parker only warranted the jury in finding that he had purchased the liquor from the defendant. In Springer v. State, 129 Ark. 106, the court held that in a prosecution for the illegal sale of liquor, the purchaser is not an accomplice of the seller, and the statute requiring corroboration of the testimony of an accomplice to sustain a conviction does not apply in such ,a case. Hence he contends that the court did not err in refusing the instruction. The weakness of the argument lies in the fact that the jury need not necessarily have found that Parker purchased the liquor from the defendant although it might have done so. Parker testified on cross-examination in response to questions asked him that the liquor belonged to Malone .and that he acted as Malone’s agent in selling it. Although he had stated on his direct examination that he himself had purchased the liquor from Malone, when his whole testimony is read together, the jury would have been warranted in finding that he acted as agent for the defendant in selling the liquor. In this view of the case the instruction .asked for by the defendant and refused by the court was not abstract, but was a correct instruction submitting to the jury the defendant’s theory of the case, that the prosecuting witness was the agent of the defendant in selling the liquor and was not a purchaser of the liquor from the defendant. The defendant’s theory of the case was not presented to the jury in any other instruction given by the court. It is true the court did instruct the jury in substance that in order to find the defendant guilty it must find that Chris Parker purchased from him a case of intoxicating liquor, or some other amount of intoxicating liquor for the sum of $70, or for any other price; but the instruction as given only submitted to the jury the State’s theory of the case and did not submit to it the theory of the defendant. It has been uniformly held by this court that a party has the right to a statement to the jury both of the principles of law controlling his case, and of the specific application of the principles to the facts in evidence. In other words, the defendant has a right to insist upon a concrete application of the legal principle involved to the facts in evidence, and a declaration from the court that these facts, if believed by the jury to be true, call for the application of the principle. The court submitted to the jury the State’s theory of the case and refused to submit that of the defendant. Such action tended to confuse and mislead the jury and constituted prejudicial error calling for a reversal of the judgment. For the error in refusing to give instruction No. 5 asked for by the defendant, the judgment will be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.