Bostick v. State

• Decision Date: 13 April 1911
• Citation: 1 Ala.App. 255,55 So. 260
• Parties: BOSTICK v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Appeals

55 So. 260

1 Ala.App. 255

BOSTICK v. STATE.

Court of Appeals of Alabama

April 13, 1911

Appeal from Law Court, Pike County; T. L. Borum, Judge.

Clarence Bostick was convicted of abandoning his wife without just cause, and he appeals. Affirmed.

D. A Baker, for appellant.

Robert C. Brickell, Atty. Gen., for the State.

DE GRAFFENRIED, J.

There was an indictment against Clarence Bostick under the statute against vagrancy, charging that the defendant, an able-bodied person, did abandon his wife without just cause, and leaving her without means of sustenance, or in danger of becoming a public charge. The defendant pleaded not guilty, and was convicted by the jury, and in default of the payment of the fine and costs was sentenced to hard labor for the county and the defendant appeals.

There was no conflict in the evidence as to the following: The defendant and Johnnie Bostick, both of whom were then minors were married to each other in February, 1909; the marriage ceremony being performed by a justice of the peace. A short while before the marriage the defendant was arrested upon a warrant issued by this same justice of the peace, upon the complaint of the said Johnnie Bostick, charging him with bastardy, and he was lodged in jail under this charge. While defendant was thus in jail, defendant's father told defendant that if he would marry the prosecutrix the bastardy proceedings would be dismissed. The defendant consented to the arrangement, and was taken from the jail to the office of the justice of the peace, where he found the prosecutrix and her mother, and the marriage ceremony was at once performed and the defendant was then discharged from jail, and the bastardy proceedings dismissed. The defendant was an able-bodied man, and about three months after the marriage the wife was delivered of twins. There was no cohabitation by the husband and wife after the marriage, and the husband, after the marriage, contributed nothing whatever to her support. The wife owned no property, and lived before and after the marriage with her mother, brother, and sister, and, on account of her pregnancy at the time of her marriage and the birth of her children afterwards, was physically unable to work.

The wife testified that the children were the children of the husband. The husband testified that at no time did he have sexual intercourse with the wife, and that they were not his children. Immediately after the marriage ceremony, the wife returned to her mother's home, and, while the husband came to see her that day, h...