State v. Farrington.

Intoxicating Liquors — Illegal Bale, Punishment Therefor— Cruel and Unusual Punishment — Sentence—Reasons. ]. For violation of a statute prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors without a license, the person convie.ted may be imprisoned in the county jail with directions that he be worked upon the public roads. 2. When no time is fixed by the statute, this court will not hold an imprisonment for two years cruel and unusual. 3. It is proper for the trial judge to state the reasons which impelled ' him to impose the sentence.

INDICTMENT against T. B. Farrington, heard by Judge Q. IF. Ward and a jury, at the December Term, 1905, of the Superior Court of Guilford. The defendant was convicted for retailing spirituous liquors without license contrary to the statute. There was no exception to Hi's Honor’s ruling upon the trial. The testimony tended to show that he had sold liquor upon two occasions, the last of which was 18 months before the finding of the bill of indictment. The solicitor introduced several other witnesses who swore that his reputation in the community was particularly bad, for selling whiskey contrary to law. Some of the witnesses stated that it was generally reported that he had been engaged in the selling of whiskey for twelve or fifteen months before the bearing of this case, when be and his sons had been indicted for burning a barn, the property of persons who had been active in prosecuting him for the unlawful sale of whiskey. The court found as a fact that he was an old distiller before the Watts law went into effect, and that after the enactment of the law he sold a lot of liquor around, creating drunkenness in the neighborhood. The court thereupon sentenced the defendant to imprisonment of twelve months in the county jail, with direction that he be worked upon the public roads. To this sentence defendant excepted and appealed.