Raleigh, April 21—Two years on the county roads is not an excessive penalty for driving an automobile while under the influence of whiskey, the Supreme Court inferentially said yesterday in passing on an appeal of Charlie Jones of Greensboro, from a sentence in the Superior Court of Guilford after he had carried his case into that court from a $50 fine at the hands of the recorder’s court of Greensboro.
The defense excepted to the punishment meted out as excessive and cruel and this was the only point at issue, on the record. In oral argument, however, counsel maintained before the Supreme Court that the legislative intent limited the punishment for the offense to that possible under the jurisdiction of the recorder’s court. The Supreme Court that the legislative intent limited the punishment for the offense to that possible under the jurisdiction of the recorder’s court. The Supreme Court, unwilling to admit this even had it been properly before the body, held that the legislature had given ample authority to cover the two-year sentence when it put a minimum penalty of not less than $50 fine or 30 days in jail or both, upon the offense. In this case, after Jones had appealed to the Superior Court from the minimum fine he entered a plea of guilty.
From The Mount Airy Times, May 5, 1921
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