John Mark Helms v. State of Alabama (Appeal from Calhoun Circuit Court: CC-22-974)

Rel: November 8, 2024

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter.
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Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
OCTOBER TERM, 2024-2025
_________________________

CR-2023-0812
_________________________

John Mark Helms

v.

State of Alabama

Appeal from Calhoun Circuit Court
(CC-22-974)

McCOOL, Judge.

John Mark Helms appeals his misdemeanor conviction for driving

a motor vehicle equipped with impermissible lights. See § 32-5-241, Ala.

Code 1975. Helms was fined $25 and was ordered to pay court costs. For

the reasons set forth herein, we affirm the trial court's judgment.
CR-2023-0812

Facts and Procedural History

The facts of this case are undisputed. On March 18, 2022, Cpl. Ryan

Key of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency initiated a traffic stop of

the "box truck" that Helms was driving. (R. 59.) Helms's truck has a

large enclosed cargo area behind the passenger compartment (C. 79), and

Cpl. Key stopped the truck because both sides of the cargo area and the

back of the cargo area have "a large digital screen projecting different

images" (R. 59) that "loop every so many seconds from one advertisement

picture to another." (R. 60.) Helms uses the digital screens on his truck,

which are "essentially … television sets" (R. 52), to advertise for various

local businesses. According to Cpl. Key, the digital screens on Helms's

truck were emitting "different color[ed]" lights which were so "bright and

glaring" (R. 59) that they were "blinding" (R. 72) and therefore "could

provide a distraction to other motorists." (R. 60.) Thus, Cpl. Key told

Helms that "the lights were too bright and he needed to turn them off."

(R. 61.) However, Helms refused to turn off the digital screens, so Cpl.

Key issued him a Uniform Traffic Ticket and Complaint charging him

with "improper lights" (R. 63) in violation of § 32-5-240, Ala. Code 1975,

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a charge that was later amended, with Helms's consent, to a violation of

§ 32-5-241.

Helms was convicted in the Calhoun District Court of violating

§ 32-5-241, and he appealed to the Calhoun Circuit Court ("the trial

court") for a trial de novo, where he waived his right to a jury trial and

elected to have a bench trial. At the close of evidence, Helms moved for

a judgment of acquittal, arguing that nothing in § 32-5-241 prohibits the

digital screens on his truck. The State argued in response that § 32-5-

241 "lists what is allowed on a vehicle" and that, as a result, "[a]nything

additional is unauthorized, plain and simple." (R. 86.) The trial court

denied Helms's motion and convicted him of violating § 32-5-241.

Discussion

The sole issue in this appeal is whether § 32-5-241 prohibits the

lights that are emitted from the digital screens on Helms's truck. We

hold that the statute does prohibit those lights and thus affirm Helms's

conviction.

Section 32-5-240 requires that motor vehicles traveling on a state

highway be equipped with certain lights. Section 32-5-241, on the other

hand, permits certain additional lights on vehicles. On appeal, Helms

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CR-2023-0812

cites the well-settled principles of statutory construction providing that

criminal statutes must be strictly construed in favor of the accused and

prohibit only the conduct that is "clearly proscribed" therein. Ex parte

Land, 346 So. 3d 1027, 1030 (Ala. Crim. App. 2021) (citations omitted).

Having armed himself with those principles, Helms argues that the

lights that are emitted from the digital screens on his truck do not violate

§ 32-5-241 because "[t]here is no mention of anything close to [a] TV

screen" in the statute. (Helms's brief, p. 16.)

Helms's argument would be well taken if § 32-5-241 prohibited a

person from equipping his vehicle with the lights enumerated in the

statute. Were that the case, Helms's conviction could not stand, because

the prohibition of the lights found in § 32-5-241 would mean that only

those lights are prohibited by the statute. However, § 32-5-241 permits

a person to equip his vehicle with the lights enumerated in the statute.

The converse of that permission, then, or the "negative implication" of

that permission, Martin v. Martin, 329 So. 3d 1242, 1245 (Ala. 2020), is

that any lights not enumerated in § 32-5-241 are prohibited by the

statute. As the Alabama Supreme Court has explained:

"It is a well established principle of statutory
interpretation that '[t]he expression of one thing implies the

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CR-2023-0812

exclusion of others.' Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner,
Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts § 10, at 107-
11 (Thomson/West 2012) (discussing the negative-implication
canon). Indeed, the use of negative implication is consistent
with this Court's jurisprudence. See, e.g., … Southern Guar.
Ins. Co. v. First Alabama Bank, 540 So. 2d 732, 734 (Ala.
1989) ('Under Alabama's commercial code, a bank may charge
a customer's account only when an item is deemed "properly
payable." Ala. Code 1975, § 7-4-401. Thus, by negative
implication, § 7-4-401 imposes liability on a drawee bank that
charges a customer's account for items not properly
payable.')."

Martin, 329 So. 3d at 1245 (emphasis added). See also Glencoe Paving

Co. v. Graves, 266 Ala. 154, 157, 94 So. 2d 872, 875 (1957) ("[T]he

expression of one thing is the exclusion of another. Under this maxim, if

a statute specifies one exception to a general rule, there are no other

exceptions to the rule.").

The Maryland Court of Appeals has similarly explained:

"It is a settled principle of statutory construction that
the Legislature's enumeration of one item, purpose, etc.
ordinarily implies the exclusion of all others. 2A Sutherland,
Statutory Construction, §§ 47.23, 47.24 (4th ed. 1973). The
principle is often expressed as the latin maxim 'expressio
unius est exclusio alterius,' Gay Investment v. Comi, 230 Md.
433, 438, 187 A.2d 463 (1963). A related principle is that
where a statute authorizes or permits a person or agency to
take a certain type of action in a particular manner, such
manner becomes a mandatory limitation, and the action must
be taken in conformity with it. Trust Co. v. Ward Baking
Corp., [177 Md. 212,] 220, 9 A.2d 228 [1939)] (' "A statute that
directs a thing to be done in a particular manner ordinarily

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CR-2023-0812

implies that it shall not be done otherwise." '); 2A Sutherland,
supra, §§ 57.14-57.18."

Office & Pro. Emp. Int'l Union, Local 2 (AFL-CIO) v. Mass Transit

Admin., 295 Md. 88, 96, 453 A.2d 1191, 1195 (1982) (emphasis added;

some internal citations omitted).

In short, then, any lights that do not fall within § 32-5-241 are not

permitted on a vehicle traveling on a state highway, unless they are

required by § 32-5-240. As a former Alabama attorney general once

explained:

"[I]t was clearly the legislative intent in enacting Section 32-
5-241 to restrict operators of vehicles from using any lighting
equipment or illuminating device on a vehicle other than
those listed in that Section and Section 32-5-240. Section 32-
5-241 clearly provides what lighting equipment or
illuminating devices in addition to that provided in Section
32-5-240 may be used on a vehicle. The use on a vehicle of
lighting equipment or illuminating devices not mandated by
Section 32-5-240 or authorized by Section 32-5-241 would
thus be a violation of Section 32-5-241."

Ala. Att'y Gen. Op. No. 95-00065 (Dec. 9, 1994) (emphasis added). That

opinion is of course not binding on this Court. However, it is "persuasive

authority" that is "entitled to great weight," Douglas v. Roper, 374 So. 3d

652, 671 (Ala. 2022) (citations omitted), and, moreover, is consistent with

the conclusion that this Court would reach even in its absence.

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CR-2023-0812

That said, the lights that are emitted from the digital screens on

Helms's truck are not required by § 32-5-240, and at no point in these

proceedings has Helms argued that those lights qualify as a type of light

permitted by § 32-5-241; in fact, Helms's entire defense has been to argue

that the digital screens on his truck, and the lights that are emitted from

them, are not included in that statute. Thus, because the lights that are

emitted from the digital screens on Helms's truck are not permitted by

§ 32-5-241, they are necessarily impermissible. Accordingly, Helms's

conviction is due to be and is hereby affirmed.

Helms has not expressly raised a vagueness challenge to § 32-5-241,

but we acknowledge his argument that the statute fails to "correctly

inform the accused of what is prohibited." (Helms's brief, p. 17.) We

disagree. As we have already explained, § 32-5-241 permits certain types

of lights on vehicles, and the "negative implication" of that permission is

that any lights that do not fall within the statute are impermissible,

unless they are required by § 32-5-240. Martin, 329 So. 3d at 1245. Thus,

to ascertain which types of lights are prohibited by § 32-5-241, a person

need only look at which types of lights are permitted by the statute. Any

lights "not mandated by Section 32-5-240 or authorized by Section 32-5-

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CR-2023-0812

241 would thus be a violation of Section 32-5-241." Ala. Att'y Gen. Op.

No. 95-00065.

AFFIRMED.

Windom, P.J., and Kellum, Cole, and Minor, JJ., concur.

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