Blount v. State
| Decision Date | 24 September 1931 |
| Citation | 138 So. 2,102 Fla. 1100 |
| Parties | BLOUNT v. STATE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to Criminal Court of Record, Duval County; James M. Peeler Judge.
R. A Blount was convicted of having unlawful carnal intercourse with an unmarried female of previous chaste character under eighteen years of age, and he brings error.
Affirmed.
COUNSEL McGill & McGill, of Jacksonville, for plaintiff in error.
Cary D Landis, Atty. Gen., and Roy Campbell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The plaintiff in error, R. A. Blount, is a negro preacher about thirty-seven years of age. In 1930, about the month of February, he began having carnal intercourse with the thirteen year old daughter of one of his parishioners. The illicit relation continued for some time until the girl became pregnant.
On the 12th day of August, 1930, the mother of the girl made an affidavit against Blount charging him with having 'carnal intercourse with an unmarried female under the age of eighteen years, to-wit, Laura Maultsby, of the age of fifteen years.' Upon this affidavit a warrant was issued and Blount was arrested.
On the 25th day of August, 1930, Blount and the girl Laura were married.
On the 26th day of August, 1930, information was filed by the county solicitor of Duval county in the criminal court of record charging Blount with the offense under the statute denouncing the crime of 'unlawful carnal intercourse with any unmarried person, of previous chaste character, who at the time of such intercourse is under the age of eighteen years.' See section 7552, Compiled General Laws of Florida 1927.
The name of the person was alleged to be Laura Maultsby, the time alleged was April 1, 1930, and the age of the girl under eighteen years.
Blount was convicted upon that information and sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the State Penitentiary at hard labor. The verdict and sentence were rendered at the October term of the court, 1930.
A writ of error was taken, and the judgment is sought to be reversed on the ground that as the accused and the girl were married the offense was condoned and the purpose of the law, the reason for its enactment, was attained and subserved.
There was no valid accusation against the plaintiff in error until the information was filed, as the affidavit and warrant dated the 12th day of August, 1930, charged no offense, in that they did not allege that the unmarried female was 'of previous chaste character.' The information was filed in the court a day after Blount and the girl became man and wife. The prosecution having been instituted after the man and the girl with whom he had the illegal relation became husband and wife, does the act (section 7552, supra) under which the information was drawn apply?
The statute is directed against seduction of unmarried persons of previous chaste character under eighteen years of age. Formerly such statutes in this state were aimed at the masculine gender of the genus. Holton v. State, 28 Fla. 303, 9 So. 716. The statute has undergone some verbal changes in that particular, chapter 8596, Laws 1921, but its purpose is still the protection of persons of immature age from licentiousness. Under the present statute the guilty person commits a felony; formerly the offense was a misdemeanor. See section 2598, Rev. St. 1892.
On the question of condonation of the offense the rule is that in the absence of statutory provisions, neither forgiveness by the woman, compromise or settlement, nor marriage of the parties is a defense. See State v. Whalen, 98 Iowa, 662, 68 N.W. 554; Barker v. Commonwealth, 90 Va. 820, 20 S.E. 776; State v. Stolley, 121 Iowa, 111, 96 N.W. 707; In re Lewis, 67 Kan. 562, 73 P. 77, 63 L. R. A. 281; 100 Am. St. Rep. 479.
The authorities relied upon by the plaintiff in error in support of his contention that the statute is not applicable to a case where the man and woman involved in the commission of the offense marry and become husband and wife rest upon the proposition that the evil at which the statute was aimed 'was not that females were seduced and then made the wives of the seducers, but that after the ends of the seducer were accomplished the victim was abandoned to her disgrace.' Such was the reasoning in Commonwealth v. Eicher, 4 Clark (Pa.) 326, followed by People v. Gould, 70 Mich. 240, 38 N.W. 232, 14 Am. St. Rep. 493, and State v. Otis, 135 Ind. 267, 34 N.E. 954, 21 L. R. A. 733, cited by counsel for the plaintiff in error. As pointed out in Re Lewis (Kan.), supra, the law is also so stated in 2 Wharton's Crim. Law, 1760, 5 Lawson's Defenses to Crimes, 780, and 2 Archibold's Crim. Pl. & Ev. 1825, but as Judge Mason in Re Lewis, supra, said, 'the statements of the text-writers, are based solely upon the cases just cited, and therefore add little to their authority.'
The argument in the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Swartz v. State
...some objective or alteration of the law, unless the contrary is clear from all the enactments on the subject. (Blount v. State, Sup.Ct.Fla.1931, 102 Fla. 1100, 138 So. 2; Ryder Truck Rental, Inc. v. Bryant, Sup.Ct.Fla.1964, 170 So.2d 822) Application of the foregoing principles to the const......
-
Ideal Farms Drainage Dist. v. Certain Lands
... ... Hulbert, 71 Cal. 72, 12 P. 43, the Supreme Court of ... California held that a swamp land assessment imposed by the ... state legislature was a liability created by statute. For ... purposes material to this case the California statute, under ... which the drainage ... mischief to be remedied, may be considered in examining into ... the intention of the Legislature. See Blount v ... State, 102 Fla. 1100, 138 So. 2, 80 A.L.R. 830. Laws ... affecting the public policy of a State or the general welfare ... should receive a ... ...
-
Gwin v. City of Tallahassee, 40078
...intended thereby to accomplish some objective, or alteration of the law. 30 Fla.Jur., Statutes, Section 91, Blount v. State, 102 Fla. 1100, 138 So. 2, 80 A.L.R. 830; Sunshine State News Co. v. State, Fla.App., 121 So.2d A reading of the preamble to the amendatory statute makes it even more ......
-
Howell v. State
... ... carnal intercourse with unmarried persons (either male or ... female) under the age of eighteen years, if such persons are ... at the time of such carnal intercourse, not only under age, ... but of previous chaste character as well. Blount v ... State, 102 Fla. 1100, 138 So. 2, 80 A. L. R. 830; ... Deas v. State (Fla.) 161 So. 729 ... A ... careful review of the testimony in this case adduced by the ... state to prove the alleged previous chaste character of the ... prosecuting female at the time of the alleged ... ...