Jacobs v. State

The defendant was convicted of vagrancy. The rigid enforcement of the law against those who will not work is of the greatest importance to society. Honest labor is the greatest preventive of crime, and idleness breeds every form of lawlessness. But criminal laws are not to be construed loosely, even to effectuate a good purpose. We think that the plaintiff in error in this case is -entitled to a new trial, because the verdict is, for want of evidence, contrary to law. It appears, from the -evidence, that one of the witnesses for the State did not see the-'defendant work;' but this purely…