[Newspaper]
Publication: The Indianapolis Morning Star
Indianapolis, IN, United States
vol. 2, no. 320, p. 10, col. 6
CIGARETTE CASES
TO GO NO HIGHER
Acquittal of Stanley in Police
Court Is Final so Far as He
Is Concerned.
NO TEST LIKELY TO FOLLOW
Appeal From Conviction on Part
of Defendant May Put Law
at Issue.
Since the acquittal in Police Court of William Stanley on a charge of having in his possession cigarette papers there has arisen a difference of opinion among lawyers as to whether or not the State can appeal the case with a view to securing ultimately a ruling of the Supreme Court on the cigarette law. Some lawyers contend that Ira Holmes, Police Court Prosecutor, can take an appeal to the Criminal Court, while others say that he can not. Mr. Holmes is among those believing an appeal can not be taken.
It is the opinion of one of Attorney General Miller's assistants that no appeal can be taken by the State from an adverse decision in the Police Court. In any event Stanley will not be affected, he having been acquitted once of the charge.
Had Stanley been tried in the Criminal Court and acquitted, the County Prosecutor then could appeal to the Supreme Court from the ruling or judgment in the Criminal Court, for the purpose of securing the higher court's ruling on the law. But in this case, as in the case of the Police Court, Stanley himself would no longer figure in the proceedings.
APPEAL FROM ELSEWHERE.
Owing to the construction that Police Judge Thomas C. Whallon puts on the anti-cigarette law it is likely that an appeal will come from some county in which there has been a conviction. There are no barriers to prevent a defendant's appeal to the Criminal Courts from a decision in a minor court, or from a Criminal Court to the Supreme Court.
It is said on good authority that the Tobacco Trust intends to test the constitutionality of the law very soon, and will be the factor behind a test case that will be pushed thorugh [sic] through the courts.