Spear v. State

The defendant was charged with possessing whisky. His statement to the jury was in part: “I am in the doughnut business, and not in the whisky business. I have never drunk whisky. I have never fooled with it, and have never had it around my house or place of business, and have never allowed it to be around.” Thereafter, over the objection that the evidence was illegal, irrelevant, and inadmissible, threw no light on the transaction on trial, and put in issue the character and reputation of the defendant without his consent and without his having first put his character in issue, the State…