Smith v. State

Yellott, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant was indicted and tried in the Criminal Court of Baltimore City ; the first count in the indictment charging him with having sold a lottery ticket to one William Bailey. On this count there was a verdict of guilty. At the trial the State offered to prove by said Bailey “ that he had played policy on the defendant,” and that he paid for and received pieces of paper which are commonly known as policies, and which, on the happening of the contingency of certain numbers being drawn in a lottery of the same date but in another State, would entitle him to the sum of one dollar and eighty cents.

The evidence offered was objected to, but the Court •ruled that it was admissible, and the traverser excepted to the ruling and took an appeal. The appellant contends that the evidence was not relevant to the issue, because he was indicted for selling a lottery ticket, and, coming into Court to defend himself against this charge., had to encounter evidence tending to show that he had committed another and a different offence. In other words he assumes that the sale of slips of paper commonly known as policies is not the sale of lottery tickets. And he relies on the case of Stewart vs. State, 62 Md., 412 , as authority in support of this assumption.

But there is an apparent distinction between the case referred to and that presented by this record. In Stewart vs. State the indictment charged the traverser with stealing “certain promissory notes for the payment of money.” The State offered in evidence a “ silver certificate,” and this Court decided that a “silver certificate” issued by