Turk v. State

191 S.E. 283, 55 Ga. App. 732, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 478
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided May 5, 1937·No. 26268·Published·Cited by 22 cases

Opinion

Gueery, J.

This writ of error involves the conviction -of William Turk (plaintiff in error) of the operation of a certain species of lottery commonly denominated “the number game” or “the bug game.”

This court has had occasion, many times before, to deal with this type of lottery. Witness Guthas v. State, 54 Ga. App. 217 (187 S. E. 847); Arnold v. State, 54 Ga. App. 230 (187 S. E. 597); Johnson v. State, 54 Ga. App. 260 (187 S. E. 679); Ransome v. State, 53 Ga. App. 490 (186 S. E. 436); Hughes v. State, 52 Ga. App. 199 (182 S. E. 807); Flynn v. State, 52 Ga. App. 382 (183 S. E. 194); Berry v. State, 51 Ga. App. 34 (179 S. E. 403); Cutcliff v. State, 51 Ga. App. 40 (179 S. E. 568); Sable v. State, 48 Ga. App. 174 (172 S. E. 236); Thweatt v. State, 48 Ga. App. 389 (172 S. E. 810); Steyers v. State, 48 Ga. App. 785 (173 S. E. 439). In this lottery the purchaser of a ticket selects a number of three digits, such as 236, 541, etc., and places thereon any amount of money he chooses. The winning number or combination is determined by the hundred thousand, the ten thousand, and the thousand digits of the total number of bond sales of the New York Stock Exchange for that particular day. Thus, if the number of bond sales totals 1,340,000, the winning combination is 340; or if the total sales are 1,940,600, the winning combination is 940, etc. These tickets are written and sold by agents who are known as writers. Each writer covers a different section of the city. They are equipped with books on the order of a sales book, each book containing 50 tickets in triplicate. The original ticket is j^ellow) and goes to the headquarters of the lottery. The first carbon slip is turned over to the purchaser for his record, and the other carbon slip is retained by the writer. On each ticket is written the number chosen by the purchaser, the date, the amount of money wagered, the initials of the purchaser, and the identification number or initial of the writer. The New York Stock Exchange closes at 2 p. m., and at that time the total bond sales are released. Therefore no tickets are sold after this time. Shortly before two o’clock these tickets are collected from the writers, or from stations where the -writers have delivered them, by men in automobiles, known as “pick-up men,” and are in turn delivered by them to headquarters, or to another “pick-up man,” known as a “master pick-up man,” who delivers the tickets [734] to headquarters. The defendant is in the embarrassing situation of having been apprehended by officers, about 1:55 p. m. driving an automobile in which they found concealed 300 yellow lottery tickets, all written that day by various writers, and a sack containing $3.96 in cash, two one-dollar bills and the remainder in nickels and dimes. Indeed the situation is so embarrassing that we think it sufficient to support his conviction of participation in the operation of a lottery. Under similar and less incriminating circumstances this court has upheld convictions. See cases already cited. The officers testified that while following the defendant they saw him lean over in the automobile as if attempting to hide something and because of this they were able to find the tickets concealed under the dashboard, which fact further fortifies the verdict of guilty. Neither the evidence nor the defendant’s statement offers any reasonable hypothesis save that of his guilt.

One of the assignments of error in the petition for certiorari is as follows: “Because the court erred in failing to charge in substance that the jurors are the sole judges of the evidence and the law as given them in charge by the court.” We find no merit in this assignment. The Code, § 27-2301, does provide that “on the trial of all criminal cases the jury shall be the judges of the law and facts.” However, it has been decided that it is not ground for reversal that the judge, without a request, failed to charge the jury that they were judges of the law and the facts. Jones v. State, 136 Ga. 157 (2) (71 S. E. 6); Webb v. State, 149 Ga. 211 (2) (99 S. E. 630); Brown v. State, 150 Ga. 756 (4) (105 S. E. 289); Brantley v. State, 154 Ga. 80 (6) (113 S. E. 200); Mapp v. State, 26 Ga. App. 479 (5) (106 S. E. 801); Bivins v. State, 29 Ga. App. 49 (3) (113 S. E. 57). Moreover, the court charged the jury that they were the judges of the facts; and where this is done, “they need not be instructed in the same connection that they are also judges of the law, if in the general charge as a whole they are correctly instructed as to the law.” Webb v. State, 8 Ga. App. 430 (69 S. E. 601). Counsel for the defendant in his brief takes the position that this case differs from the Webb case, supra, “in that the court in this case instructs the jury that they are to take all the evidence in the case and all the facts and surrounding circumstances and the defendant’s statement, and to arrive at their verdict from them, [735] without any reference as to applying the facts in the case to the law applicable in this case.” "We do not think this argument apposite to the assignment of error which we have quoted. It furnishes no legitimate ground of distinction. If counsel’s contention be that the court failed to tell the jury to apply the facts of the case to the law applicable, in making up their verdict, a charge that they were the judges of the law and the facts (the failure to charge which is the subject of the present assignment of error) would not have cured this omission. However, this argument is not meritorious. Jurors are to be treated by courts and counsel alike as men of ordinary intelligence. It is not to be assumed that they would think it their duty to try the guilt of the defendant only on the facts, without regard to the law given them in charge. They must necessarily have thought, for it is obvious, that the judge gave them the law in charge so that they, might apply' thereto the facts in determining the guilt of the defendant.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Turk v. State, 191 S.E. 283, 55 Ga. App. 732, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 478 (Ga. Ct. App. 1937).

191 S.E. 283 (Turk v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Johnson v. State
141 S.E.2d 574 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1965)
McDay v. State
125 S.E.2d 534 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1962)
Clay v. State
95 S.E.2d 471 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1956)
Ford v. State
73 S.E.2d 584 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1952)
Green v. State
73 S.E.2d 86 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1952)
Crowder v. State
73 S.E.2d 85 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1952)
Dodys v. State
36 S.E.2d 164 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1945)
Fountain v. State
30 S.E.2d 359 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1944)
Britton v. State
27 S.E.2d 100 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1943)
Goodrum v. State
25 S.E.2d 585 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1943)
Walker v. State
25 S.E.2d 587 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1943)
Thomas v. State
20 S.E.2d 84 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1942)
York v. State
20 S.E.2d 145 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1942)
Wright v. State
20 S.E.2d 174 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1942)
Flagg v. State
16 S.E.2d 516 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1941)
Bagley v. State
13 S.E.2d 34 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1941)
Morrow v. State
10 S.E.2d 762 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1940)
Shurling v. State
11 S.E.2d 395 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1940)
Lunsford v. State
4 S.E.2d 112 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1939)
Wood v. State
198 S.E. 799 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1938)