Russell v. State

CATES, Judge.

A resume of the facts appears in the within dissenting opinion of Judge JOHNSON.

Out of the blue, the solicitor, in Nix v. State, 32 Ala.App. 136, 22 So.2d 449, stated in closing argument. “These Negroes were running a honky tonk out there,” and thereby worked reversal. Judge Carr concluded this characterization was made as of fact. But it was without support in the evidence. That fault, coupled with the prejudicial import of “honky tonk,” tipped the balance.

Combined with the court’s refusal to exclude a volunteered innuendo by a witness that the defendant sold whiskey, the…