Adams v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 06 May 1927
• Citation: 219 Ky. 711
• Parties: Adams v. Commonwealth.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

219 Ky. 711

Adams v. Commonwealth.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Decided May 6, 1927.

1. Rape. — "Rape" is the unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman without her consent.

2. Rape. — Where woman was not wife of defendant in rape prosecution, any sexual intercourse by them was unlawful, and if without her consent it was rape.

3. Rape. — Under evidence in rape prosecution, failure of court to instruct jury under Ky. Stats., section 1158, and Criminal Code of Practice, section 239, as to lesser degree of offense, held prejudicial error; court having instructed only under Ky. Stats, section 1154, and Criminal Code of Practice, section 238.

4. Rape. — In rape prosecution, evidence relating to previous acts of intercourse between defendant and complaining witness, as bearing on question of consent, held erroneously excluded.

5. Rape. — In rape prosecution, evidence that woman failed to make any complaint about outrage in conversation a few hours thereafter held erroneously excluded; it bearing on question of consent.

6. Rape. — Delay or failure of woman to make complaint on being raped may be accounted for by circumstances excusing such delay.

Appeal from Harlan Circuit Court.

G.J. JARVIS, F.L. HUFF and R.L. POPE for appellant.

FRANK E. DAUGHERTY, Attorney General, and CHAS. F. CREAL, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY DRURY, COMMISSIONER.

Reversing.

Tom Adams is asking for the reversal of a judgment imposing upon him 10 years' imprisonment in the penitentiary for rape. Omitting the disgusting details, it is claimed that shortly after 1 o'clock in the early morning of July 24, 1926, Tom Adams, John Adams, and Matt Sizemore came to the home of Jeff Young, and Tom Adams, reaching through the window, took hold of Mrs. Young, who was lying in bed just next to the window, and wakened her. As a result of her outcry, her husband and family were awakened. John Adams and Sizemore in the meantime had entered the room through a door. There was some trouble in the room, and John Adams, who was an older man, told Mr. Young, if he would get out of the way, he would leave and see that the others left, and they did so. After they got out in the road, one them called for Mrs. Alice Young to come out. As she did not come out at once, one of them threw a rock through the window, broke the window, broke the lamp, spilled the oil, and it took fire. Mrs. Young's daughter extinguished the flames, and everything was in darkness. The three continued to call for Mrs. Young, and continued their threats. She came to the door, and she says they seized her and forcibly carried her to the home of Bess Hale, which was a short distance away. Bess Hale was not at home, and she was carried into a bedroom there, which was usually occupied by Matt Sizemore. There she says that they compelled her to drink some alchorub, and that after that John Adams and Matt Sizemore held her, while Tom Adams ravished her. Then Tom Adams and Sizemore held her while John Adams ravished her, and the two Adams men held her while Sizemore did the same. They then told her she could go home. She went. In a few minutes after that, her husband, Jeff Young, shot and killed Matt Sizemore. The defendant claims that Mrs. Young voluntarily went with them to the home of Bess Hale, and then after talking with them for a while, went home, and that no wrong was done her. It is claimed for them that the charge of rape was trumped up to excuse her husband for the killing of Matt Sizemore.

In Funk & Wagnalls' new Standard Dictionary, rape is defined to be "the unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman without her consent." This woman was not the wife of any of these three; hence any sexual intercourse by them with her, without her consent, was rape.

Tom Adams has alleged three grounds for the reversal of this case. The court instructed the jury under section 1154, Ky. Stats., and section 238, Criminal Code, to which instructions defendant objected and excepted. The court should have instructed the jury under section 1154 and section 1158, Ky. Stats., and sections 238 and 239, Criminal Code. The detention of a woman with the intention to have carnal knowledge of her, as defined by section 1158, is a lesser degree of the offense of rape. See Meade v. Com., 214 Ky. 88, 282 S.W. 781. The defendant admits enough that the question of whether or not he detained this woman with the intention to have carnal knowledge of her should also have been submitted to the jury by proper instructions, and the failure of the court to do so...