State v. Oge
| Decision Date | 06 February 1940 |
| Docket Number | 44871. |
| Citation | 290 N.W. 1,227 Iowa 1094 |
| Parties | STATE v. OGE. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Henry County; E. O. Newell, Judge.
The defendant was by indictment accused of soliciting carnal knowledge with a female, in that he asked her to have carnal knowledge with him contrary to the statute as set out in Section 13174 of the 1935 Code of Iowa. His demurrer to the indictment having been overruled, he excepted to the ruling and, subject to the exception, entered a plea of guilty. From a judgment on his plea sentencing him to imprisonment for twelve months in the county jail at hard labor, he has appealed.
Reversed.
Ben A Galer, of Mt. Pleasant, for appellant.
Fred D. Everett, Atty. Gen., Jens Grothe, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Harold F. McLeran, Co. Atty., of Mt. Pleasant, for appellee.
This appeal comes to the court on a clerk's transcript and printed briefs and arguments. It appears from this record that an unsigned letter was received by a married lady asking her to attend an initiation ceremony at the Christian Church of New London, Iowa. She ascertained that there was to be no social function at the church at the time designated in the letter. She gave the letter to her husband, who with the sheriff and other peace officers hid themselves about the church, while she went to the church door. Soon the defendant appeared, but hurriedly left. On being apprehended he admitted writing the letter, and confessed that he sent it for the purpose of soliciting carnal knowledge with the recipient. We have the letter before us. In it he simply asked the lady to come to the church for the initiation exercises. He did not ask her therein for sexual intercourse or intimate in any way that such was his desire or purpose in asking her to come. We have also his written confession. In it he states: " I sent this letter to her for the purpose of soliciting her to have carnal knowledge." It is thus clearly apparent that he never did, in fact, ask her to have carnal relations with him, and the offense charged in the indictment or provided against in Section 13174, Iowa Code of 1935, was never committed. It is the duty of the court under Section 14010, Iowa Code 1935, to examine the record in an appeal of this kind, and to render such judgment on the record as the law demands. But since the indictment expressly stated that he requested that she have carnal knowledge with him, and by his demurrer thereto he admitted its allegations, we will determine the case upon the ruling on the demurrer. It will be noted that the carnal knowledge was to be with the solicitor and not with a third person.
The defendant demurred to the indictment on three grounds: first that it did not conform substantially to the requirements of the Code; second, that it did not charge the defendant with the crime set out in said code section 13174, which is as follows:
This legislation first appeared as Chapter 165, of the Laws of the Thirty First General Assembly, approved April 5, 1906, in words and figures following:
" Soliciting Another To Have Carnal Knowledge With Any Female.
An Act punishing any person who shall ask, request, or solicit another to have carnal knowledge with any female, for a consideration or otherwise. (Additional to chapter nine (9) of title twenty-four (XXIV) of the code, relating to offenses against chastity, morality and decency.)
Section 1. Penalty. That any person who shall ask, request, or solicit another to have carnal knowledge with any female for a consideration or otherwise, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding five years, or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both such fine and jail imprisonment."
It will be observed that the body of Section 1 of the above enactment is identical with the body of Section 13174 of the 1935 Code of Iowa, except that the words " male or" are missing between the two words " any" and " female", in the third line of the section.
It will also be observed that the act with which the defendant herein is charged would not have been a crime under the provisions of that enactment.
This enactment appeared in the 1907 Supplement to the Code of Iowa, as Section 4975-c, with the following heading: " Soliciting for the purpose of prostitution."
The Thirty Fifth General Assembly, by Chapter 304 of its Laws, approved in April, 1913, amended the aforesaid legislation of the Thirty First General Assembly, by the following Act, towit:
" Soliciting For The Purpose Of Prostitution.
An Act to amend the law as it appears in section four thousand nine hundred seventy-five-c (4975-c) of the supplement to the code, 1907, relating to soliciting for the purpose of prostitution.
Section 1. Soliciting for the purpose of prostitution-penalty. That sect...
To continue reading
Request your trial