Hawks v. State

1. On the trial of one accused of vagrancy, it is error to instruct the jury that “a person may become a vagrant in a very short while, — in fact, in a few days, — provided he is able to work and does not work, and has no property to support himself, and wanders about in idleness; for the law does not contemplate that under such circumstances a person may work one or two days in a week and then loaf around the remainder of the week.” This instruction is erroneous: (a) Because the length of time in which a person may become a vagrant is immaterial, the question before the jury not being how…