State v. Waller

7 N.C. 229

Opinion

Henderson, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the Court:

Private drunkenness is no offence by our municipal laws. It becomes so by being open and exposed to public view, to that extent that it thereby becomes a nuisance, commune uocumentum ; and that is a question of fact to be tried by the Jury. There being no charge in this indictment to that effect, the Jury has not, and could not pass on it; which being of the very essence of the crime, the judgment must be arrested.