Edwards v. State

Smith, O. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellant, a sixteen year old youth, was convicted of stealing an automobile over $25 in value and sentenced to the penitentiary. His defense was that he was so intoxicated at the time he is said to have taken the automobile as to be incapable of having, and so did not have, the specific intent to steal it. The court below charged the jury for the state that “voluntary drunkenness is no defense to crime.”

Drunkenness is at least quasi criminal, and if a person while voluntarily drunk commits a criminal act, the drunkenness supplies the…