Tatum v. State

CARR, Judge.

Appellant was convicted on a charge of vagrancy — allegedly that he was a common drunkard. Subsection (5), Section 437, Title 14, Code 1940.

The terms "common drunkard” and “habitual drunkard” are often used interchangeably and are by many courts considered to be synonymous. Each term is taken to define a characteristic of a person who drinks intoxicating liquors to the extent of getting drunk and this excessive indulgence occurs with habitual frequency. Or, in the language of the trial judge in his oral charge to the jury: “A common drunkard is a person whose general rule of life…