Court Opinion

ID: 9812490
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:40:15.559098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:01.843286
License: Public Domain

Brown, J.,
dissenting: I dissent from so much of the opinion of the court as undertakes to sustain the constitutionality of section 3„ chapter 434, Public Laws of 1903, relating to the citizens of Union County, to-wit: “That if any person, other than licensed retail dealers under said laws, shall keep in his possession liquors to the quantity of more than a quart within said county, it shall be prima facie evidence of his keeping it for sale within the meaning of this act.”
The provisions of this act make it an indictable offense to keep liquor in one’s possession with intent to sell it, and at the same time prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors within the County of Union. Irrespective of the provisions of the act, I am of opinion that there was sufficient testimony to be submitted to the jury that the defendant did have in his possession liquor with intent to sell it. But in as much as His Honor in charging the jury gave force and effect to the prima facie case contemplated by the statute, I think a new trial should he granted, because if is impossible for us to determine upon what view of the evidence the jury rendered their verdict. I am of opinion that the Legislature has no power to declare that the mere possession of more than a quart of liquor shall be prima facie evidence that the possess- or intends to sell it, and thereby subject himself to the penalties and pains of a criminal prosecution. The Legislature has not seen fit, even if it had the power to do so, to prohibit the use and possession of intoxicating liquors within Union County. It has only prohibited the keeping in possession of intoxicating liquors with intent to sell. The possession and use of intoxicating liquors are lawful acts which any citizen *647of that county may do with impunity. The Legislature has very extensive powers in respect to fixing, changing or modifying the rules of evidence to be applied by the courts, but the exercise of this power in relation to criminal proceedings is subject to very important limitations prescribed by the organic law of the country which legislatures, courts, and all others in authority must respect. Among other limitations the Legislature cannot deprive any citizen of Union County of that equal protection of the laws of the land which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States; nor can it deprive such citizen of the protection of that fundamental principle which declares him to be innocent until he is proven guilty to the full satisfaction of a jury of his peers. This presumption of innocence is thrown around the accused and he is entitled to it at every stage of the legal proceedings instituted against him. In prosecutions under the liquor laws there have been many legislative provisions in the different States tending to facilitate the conviction of offenders by admitting presumptive or indirect proof of certain facts, and generally these acts have been so framed as to meet with no valid constitutional objection, but there is one underlying principle which has been observed in the preparation of all such acts except the one now under consideration. “In criminal cases the limitation has been imposed that the acts declared prima facie evidence of the crime must have some relation to the criminal act and tend to prove the crime.” Jones on Evidence, vol. 1, sec. 194, and cases cited.
One of the most sacred rights which guard the liberty of the citizen in this and all other States of this Union is the presumption of innocence which the law throws around him. While the Legislature may make certain acts of the individual and certain facts connected with him prima facie evidence of guilt, yet it is everywhere conceded that the act is obnoxious to the organic law unless the facts have some ten*648dency to prove guilt. In other words, the Legislature cannot by its arbitrary will give to a perfectly lawful and innocent act an unlawful and criminal effect, or draw from acts warranted by law, and which everyone may rightfully do, an unlawful, improper and criminal intent. By this act the Legislature has withdrawn from the citizens of Union County the equal protection of the law which is given to the other citizens of the State. In no other county in North Carolina is the citizen so situated that he may perform a perfectly lawful act and enjoy a legal right and at the same time, by the mere force of an arbitrary statute, have inferred from it a wrongful and criminal intent. The question as to what is a denial of the equal protection of the law is one which has been before the Supreme Court of the United States in a great many cases. The decisions of the highest courts of the States will show that it is one not easily determined. No rule can be formulated that will cover every case, but it has' been generally said that no person or class of persons shall be denied the same protection of the laws which is enjoyed by other prisons or other classes in the same jurisdiction and in like circumstances. Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U. S., 31. Justice Field says, in Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U. S., 27, that “the 14th Amendment means that equal protection and security shall be given to all persons under like circumstances in the enjoyment of their personal and civil rights.” “Due process of law and the equal protection of the laws are secured, if the laws operate on all alike and do not subject individuals to an arbitrary exercise of the powers of government.” Duncan v. Missouri, 152 U. S., 377. No duty rests more imperatively upon the courts than the enforcement of these fundamental provisions intended to secure with equality the rights which are the foundation of all free government. It doubtless conduces greatly to the peace, happiness and morality of a community to prohibit the illicit sale of intoxicating liquors, but in doing so it is of equal, if not *649greater, importance that the fundamental rights of the citizen under our organic law should not be ruthlessly destroyed. “The State has undoubtedly the power by proper legislation to protect the public morals, the public health and the public safety, but if by their necessary operation its regulations looking to either of these ends amount to a denial to persons within its jurisdiction of the equal protection of the laws, they must be deemed unconstitutional and void.” Connolly v. Sewer Pipe Co., 184 U. S., 558.
I do not question the right of the Legislature to make the possession of intoxicating liquors with intent to sell an indictable offense any more than I question its right to prohibit the sale of it entirely within the entire State or any county or township in it, but I do deny its right in the prosecution of crime under such laws to take away from the citizen the fundamental rights which are thrown around him to protect him from the penalties and pains of a criminal prosecution.
It will be seen by an examination of the cases, I think, that there is absolutely no authority against the position I have taken, although innumerable cases can be found in which the Legislature has made the possession of intoxicating liquors in certain cases and under. certain circumstances prima facie evidence of an intent to sell. But I do not think my brethren can find any statute where the mere fact of the possession of three pints of intoxicating liquors' under any and all circumstances has ever been made prima facie evidence of a criminal intent to sell, or where any such statute has ever heen upheld by any court in this country. I refer to a number of cases: State v. Cunningham, 25 Conn., 195; State v. Morgan, 40 Conn., 44; Commonwealth v. Wallace, 7 Gray (Mass.), 222; Black on Intoxicating Liquors, sec. 60. In most of these cases the statutes under consideration relate to certain houses wherein liquor is found. Some of them provide that where liquor is delivered in certain quanti*650ties such, delivery "shall be sufficient evidence of sale. State v. Hurley, 54 Me., 562. Other, statutes provide that where persons are seen drinking intoxicating liquors on certain premises it shall be prima facie evidence that it was sold by the occupant of such premises with intent to be drunk thereon. Statutes have been upheld which provided that proof of the finding of liquor in the possession of the accused under certain circumstances specified in the act shall be received and acted upon by the court as presumptive evidence that such liquor was kept or held for sale contrary to law. Again, the notorious character of certain premises, when proven, has been held to be prima facie evidence of certain facts. The statutes are too numerous to set out or comment upon at length. Suffice it to say that all of them contain specific circumstances or relate to certain premises, and none of them provide that the mere fact of the possession of a quantity of liquor exceeding a quart, without any exception whatever, shall be prima facie evidence of crime.
In Commissioners v. Merchant, 103 N. Y., 148, Judge Earle says: “It would not be possible to uphold a law which made an act prima facie evidence of crime which had no relation to a criminal act and no tendency whatever by itself to prove a criminal act.” * * * But such is not the effect of declaring any circumstance or any evidence, however slight, prima facie evidence of a fact to be established leaving the adverse party at liberty to rebut it. Here the act which iá made prima facie evidence of an illegal sale takes place upon the premises of the person chargedit has some relation to and furnishes some evidence of an illegal sale, and occurs in a place where liquors are authorized to be kept and sold.” Judge Peckham, now of the Supreme Court of the United States, in People v. Cannon, 139 N. Y., 43, says: “It cannot be disputed that the courts of this and other States are committed to the general principle that even in criminal prosecutions the Legislature may, with certain limitations, enact that *651where certain facts have been proved, they shall be prima facie evidence of the existence of the main fact in question. The limitations are that the fact upon which the presumption is to rest must have some fair relation to or natural connection with the main fact. The inference of the existence of the main fact, because of the existence of the fact actually proved, must not be merely and purely arbitrary.” In State v. Shank, 74 Iowa, 652, it is said: “The defendant being authorized to keep liquors for lawful purposes, no presumption arises against him that they are kept for unlawful purposes. The law will presume, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the defendant kept them for lawful purposes, for men are presumed to act in obedience to the law where their acts are not shown to be unlawful.” The Supreme Court of Indiana says: “We should unhesitatingly declare a statute void which attempted to enact that a person should be convicted of an offense upon proof of facts which might be consistent with innocence, yet it has often been held that the Legislature in defining a crime may also enact that proof of facts which are universally recognized as indicating guilt shall be sufficient prima facie evidence of-the commission of the offense defined by statute.” Voght v. State, 124 Ind., 361. In the case of People v. Lyon, 27 Hun. (N. Y.), 180, Judge Larned says: “In tire present case the defendant is charged with having sold liquor with intent that it should be drunk on the premises. It is right to have the question tried by jury. That means that the jury are to determine from -their own judgment upon the facts legally given in evidence whether or not the defendant is guilty. If the Legislature can declare that a certain fact is prima facie evidence of the defendant’s guilt, such a declaration means that the jury must convict unless the defendant ^explains away this evidence.” In giving a number of pertinent illustrations, the learned Judge says: “If the Legislature can legally enact such a clause, they might enact that if a dead body were *652found, in any bouse that should be prima facie evidence that the occupant of the house had murdered the deceased, because the legislative enactment is purely arbitrary and need have no regard to the connection or want of connection between the evidence and the conclusion which is to be prove'd.”
In State v. Beswick, 13 R. I., 218, the Court says: “It will be observed that the statute makes proof of the facts mentioned in it not only evidence against the accused, but prima facie evidence of his guilt, so that upon proof of that it is the duty of the jury to convict unless the presumption is rebutted by other evidence. * * * We have carefully considered the question and have come to the conclusion that the statute is not constitutional. It virtually strips the accused of the protection of the common law maxim that every person is to be presumed innocent until he is proved guilty, which is recognized in the Constitution as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence. * * * Certainly the accused does not have the judgment of a jury if the jury is compelled by an artificial rule to convict him upon proof of a fact which is consistent with his innocence. * * * Suppose the Gen eral Assembly were to enact that if any person was generally reputed to be guilty of murder it should be prima facie evidence of his guilt. Could it be said that his life or liberty had been taken from him by the judgment of his peers? * * * Indeed, to hold that a Legislature can create artificial presumptions of guilt from facts which are consistent with innocence is to hold that it has the power to take away from the judicial trial the very element which makes it judicial. * * * It is true the accused has the right of defense and if he can adduce satisfactory evidence he may rebut the statutory presumption, but the production of such evidence is not always easy even with the right to testify in his own behalf.” In State v. Beach, 43 N. E. Rep. (Ind.), 951, it is said: “A law which makes an act prima facie evidence *653of crime, which has no tendency whatever to establish a criminal act, is unconstitutional and void.”
The right of which the Legislature deprives the citizens of TJnion County is probably the most sacred and valuable of all the rights guaranteed to the citizens of this country in our National and State Constitutions. The words “due process of law,” and “equal protection of the laws,” as used in the 14th Amendment, mean practically one and the same thing. The words “the law of the land,” were borrowed, from Magna Oharta and have a recognized significance. Judge Cooley, in his work on Constitutional Limitations, see. 355, cites with approval a definition by Judge Edwards, in Westervelt v. Gregg, 12 N. Y., 202: “Due process of law undoubtedly means in the due course of legal proceedings, according to those rules and forms which have been established for the protection of private rights.” The effect in criminal prosecutions is to secure to the accused a judicial trial according to the general principles of the common law, and not in violation of those fundamental rules which have been established by the common law for the protection of the citizen. Among these rules there is none which is more fundamental than the rule that every person shall be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty. “This rule,” said Judge Selden, in People v. Toinbee, 2 Parker, Cr. R., 490, “will be found incorporated into many of our State constitutions, and is one of those rules which in our constitutions are compressed into the brief but significant phrase ‘due process of law.’ ” In the case of State v. Divine, 98 N. C., 783, Chief Justice Smith quotes with approval from Judge Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, page 309: “The mode of investigating the facts, however, is the same in all, and this is through a trial by jury surrounded by certain safeguards which are a well understood part of the system and which the government cannot dispense with.” “Meaning, as we understand,” says Judge Smith, “that the charge must go before the jury and *654the guilt of the accused proved to them, with the presumption of innocence until this is done.” In Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall., 328, Mr. Justice Field says: “The clauses in question subvert the presumption of innocence and alter the rule of evidence which heretofore under the universally recognized principles of the common law have been supposed to be fundamental and unchangeable.” In Wynehamer v. People, 13 N. Y., 446, the court says that “the Legislature cannot subvert that fundamental rule of justice which bolds that everyone shall be presumed innocent until be is proved guilty.” In San Mateo v. Railroad, 8 A. & E. R. R. Cases, 10, the Supreme Court of the United States says: “Whatever the State may do, it cannot deprive any one within its jurisdiction of the equal protection of the.laws, and by equal protection is meant equal security under them by every one on similar terms in bis life, bis liberty and in the pursuit of happiness.”
Subjecting the statute under consideration to the test as laid down by these authorities, the conclusion to my mind is irresistible that it is obnoxious to our organic law both Federal and State. What is the fact to be proven which constitutes the gravamen of the offence ? It is certainly not the mere possession of more than one quart of liquor. That is a perfectly lawful act not.only in Union County, but in every other county in North Carolina. It is the intent to sell which constitutes' the crime. Does the possession of three pints of liquor under any and all circumstances tend to prove that the possessor intends to sell it? If it does, the act is constitutional. If it does not, it is violative of the organic law of the land, if the authorities I have quoted are worth anything. What is there in the mere possession of three pints of liquor which would tend in the least degree to indicate that the owner of it kept it for sale or ever intended to sell it ? There are five thousand individuals in this country who purchase liquor for their own consumption to one who pur*655chases it fox sale. To give the act the effect contended for it must be construed with reference to the purpose of the one without having any regard whatever to the purpose of the five thousand. The act must not be tested by the evidence in this case. Independent of the act, I am willing to a.dmit that the evidence was amply sufficient to support a conviction. But the act in question is purely arbitrary and it has been given that effect. It does not, as the cases I have referred to, give any specified circumstances under which the presumption shall arise. It applies to the possesion of three pints of wine with as much force as to the possession of three barrels of whiskey. A lady who places on her dinner table for the entertainment of her guests three pints of claret is as much a prima facie criminal as the peddler who hauls around in his covered wagon a barrel of “untaxed corn” with his pint pot tied to the spigot. The latter might justly and legally constitute a prima facie case of “intent to sellbut it would be impossible to infer such an intent from the former. The possession of three pints of liquor in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred is far more indicative of an intent to drink than of an intent to sell. Yet the statute makes-no distinction. It “feeds all out of the same spoon,” and invests all persons with equal criminality in the eyes of the law regardless of circumstances or surroundings, reason or logic. The individual in Union County who dares to have in his residence three pints of seuppernong wine, prescribed as a tonic for his ailing wife, is in danger of having his liberty taken from him, and sent to break rock upon the county roads by virtue of a few little words in this statute. It will not do to say that no jury would convict a man under such circumstances. He is placed on the defensive. The shield and panoply of innocence is stripped from him, and he is at the mercy of twelve men. Eanaticism has done worse things than convicting a man under such circumstances however unjustifiable we think it máy be. This protection is given to the citizen not to pre*656vent his conviction, alone when charged with crime, bnt it is given him to protect him from unjust, improper, mortifying and expensive criminal prosecutions, and it is the most valuable and priceless possession the individual has. The citizens of Union, County are as much entitled to it as any other citizens of North Carolina or the United States.
The court does not undertake to explain how the possession of more than a quart of liquor can possibly be significant of a purpose to sell, and I am at a loss to know. The mere possession of three pints of liquor is no more indicative of the owner’s purpose and intent in relation to it than is the possession of three pints of flour, meal or anything else. Men sell liquor, it is true, and so they do other things, but inasmuch as the vast majority are buyers of such articles and not sellers, I fail to see how mere possession of so small a quantity indicates an intent to sell as strongly as it does a purpose to consume.
Unless the court can show that the possession of such a quantity of liquor indicates a purpose to sell, it must hold that the Legislature can by arbitrary enactment make a perfectly innocent and lawful act evidence of a criminal intent, although such act has no tendency to prove guilt. And such is really the effect of the decision in this case.
I have cited from the opinions in a few of the leading precedents referred to in the judgment of the court, and the citations sustain fully my contention. All the statutes referred to in the opinion of the court or in the cases cited therein make certain acts, which tend to prove guilt, prima facie evidence of it. None of them undertake to make a purely lawful act, from which no unlawful intent and purpose can be reasonably inferred, evidence of crime. But all the cases, without an exception so far as I can discover, ■ declare that cannot be lawfully done. Space will not permit me to comment on all these statutes, but I will cite our own statute against carrying concealed weapons as an illustration. The statute makes the *657possession, of the weapons named in it (pistols, bowie knives, etc.), off one’s premises prima facie evidence of concealment. That act is plainly constitutional. Why ? Because the weapons named in the act may be and commonly are carried in the pocket and concealed from view. When the weapon is seen in the hand of the owner off his premises, it is a fact tending to prove that he took it from his pocket and thereby had it concealed on his person.- If I had space I could point out the true significance of every act of the Legislature mentioned by the court, and easily show that the facts declared to be prima facie evidence of crime have some tendency to prove it, while the fact stated in the act under consideration has no such tendency.
The General Assembly in my opinion has just as much right to declare that in all indictments in Union County for having liquor in possession with intent to sell, the defendant shall be presumed to be guilty and shall be required to establish his innocence, as it had to enact the statute in question, wherein, by mere arbitrary words, a perfectly lawful and innocent act is declared to be prima facie evidence of a guilty intent. There are some things the General Assembly cannot do. It may declare that hereafter “black shall be white,” but it cannot make it so. Nor can it lawfully, by the exercise of its arbitrary will, turn innocence into prima facie guilt. It has just as much right to declare that the possession of a gun shall be prima facie evidence of an intent to kill.
The court declares that Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S., 623, is a plain authority that the act under consideration does not violate the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. With the utmost respect for the opinion of my brethren, I am constrained to say that the case has no bearing whatever on the question at issue in this appeal. In Mugler v. Kansas it is decided: 1.' That the State of Kansas had the right to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors within the State. 2. That Mugler could not recover the *658value of bis brewery. 3. That in prosecutions under the Kansas act it is not necessary for the State to affirmatively prove that the defendant did not bave a permit to sell intoxicating liquors. I do not controvert anything decided in that case. The third proposition has always been the law in North Carolina in indictments for selling intoxicating liquors without license. The possession of the license is a matter of defense. The utter’ lack of pertinency of the Mugler case to the one at bar can be seen from the following quotation: “It is only a declaration that when the State has proven that the place is kept for the manufacture of intoxicating liquors (such manufacture or sale being unlawful except for specified purposes and then only under a permit) the prosecution need not prove a negative, viz., that the defendant has not the required license. If the. defendant has such permit he_can easily produce it and thus overthrow the prima facie case established by the State.” How very different is the act we are considering. Under it, the State can prove the possession .of three pints of wine in a citizen’s private dining room, who is not engaged in any business connected with intoxicating liquors, rest its prosecution upon the prima facie case thus made out under the statute, whereby a lawful and innocent act is arbitrarily converted into evidence of a criminal intent. • If the jury should from prejudice or fanaticism refuse to believe the defendant’s explanation, be is helpless. AVby ? Because the statute has robbed him of the greatest protection the citizen has against unwarranted prosecution, viz., the presumption' of innocence thrown around him by the fundamental law. The court would bave done well to quote some of the forcible utterances of Judge Harlan in the Mugler case. He says: “It does not at all follow that every statute enacted ostensibly for the promotion of these ends is to be accepted as a legitimate exertion of the police powers of the State. There are, of necessity, limits beyond which legislation cannot rightfully go;” and again, “Undoubtedly, the *659State, when providing by legislation for tbe protection of tbe public bealtb, tbe public morals or tbe public safety, is subject to tbe paramount authority of tbe Constitution of tbe United States and may not violate rights secured or guaranteed by that instrument.”
In conclusion I will say that I sympathize deeply with all legislative efforts to extirpate illicit traffic in intoxicating liquors, and will be found sustaining all such laws when within tbe legislative power. But I cannot conscientiously assist in laying tbe judicial axe to tbe most valuable and sacred of all tbe fundamental rights of civil liberty, viz., tbe legal right to be adjudged by tbe court innocent unless tbe State has offered evidence tending to prove tbe commission of a crime. Tbe citizens of Union County are as much entitled to tbe protection of this organic law, in tbe prosecution of any and all offenses, as are tbe other citizens of tbe State, and, when it is denied to them as it is by this statute, they are denied tbe equal protection of tbe “law of tbe land,” and are at tbe mercy of capricious and uncertain jurors.
For tbe reasons I have attempted to give, I think there should be a new trial, and tbe court below directed to submit tbe case to tbe jury upon the evidence without reference to any prima facie case under tbe statute.