
    
      Ex parte Reeves.
    
      Petition for Mandamus, to Circuit Judge, in Matter of Application for Change of Venue.
    
    
      Change of venue in criminal case; to what county. — Under the statute which gives the defendant in a criminal case the right to a change of venue (Rev. Code, §§ 4206-7), the venue must he changed, on his proper application, to the “nearest county free from objection; ” and neither the time when the next term of the court will be held in that county, nor the convenience of the witnesses, is sufficient to authorize the removal to any other county.
    Petition by John Reeves, for a writ of mandamus to tbe Hon. J. McCaleb Wiley,''presiding in the circuit court of Coffee county, on tbe facts stated in tbe opinion.
    J. D. Roberts, for tbe petitioner.
   B. F. SAFFOLD, J.

Tbe petitioner, under indictment for grand larceny, was granted a change of venue from Coffee to Pike county. He desired tbe cause to be transferred to Covington county, because, no objection being made to that county by tbe State, it was shown to be tbe nearest. Tbe court ordered it to Pike, because tbe witness lived somewhat nearer to that county, and tbe spring term of tbe court there bad not passed, whereas it bad passed in Covington.

Tbe statute expressly directs, that “ tbe trial must be removed to the nearest county free from exception, and can be removed but once.” R. C. § 4207. Tbe exception referred to means some obstacle to a fair and impartial trial. R. C. § 4206.

Tbe remedy before trial is mandamus. Birdsong v. State, 47 Ala. 68. A rule nisi will issue.  