Connor v. State, 5790
| Decision Date | 29 January 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 5790,5790 |
| Citation | 490 S.W.2d 114,253 Ark. 854 |
| Parties | John Martin CONNOR, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
James E. Davis, Texarkana, for appellant.
Ray Thornton, Atty. Gen., by Lonnie Powers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.
Appellant was charged with sodomy by an act of fellatio (oral stimulation of penis) under Ark.Stat.Ann. § 41--813 (Repl.1964). He appeals from this conviction on the grounds that no statute makes fellatio a public offense; that § 41--813 is so vague and broad as to deprive appellant of his federal constitutional rights; and the section establishes a religion and invades the right of privacy.
The cited statute reads: 'Every person convicted of sodomy, or buggery shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for a period of not less than one (1) nor more than twenty-one (21) years.'
The allegation that the statute does not cover the act of fellatio is without merit. In Strum v. State, 168 Ark. 1012, 272 S.W. 359 (1925), we approved this definition: 'The crime of sodomy, broadly and comprehensively speaking, consists of unnatural sexual relations between persons of the same sex, or with beasts, or between persons of different sex, but in an unnatural manner.' In Mangrum v. State, 227 Ark. 381, 299 S.W.2d 80, Mangrum was charged with sodomy by an act of fellatio and we specifically held: 'Such information charged an offense denounced by § 41--813, Ark.Stats.' In at least one other case we sustained a conviction for the same offense. Havens v. State, 217 Ark. 153, 228 S.W.2d 1003 (1950).
Neither do we find any merit in the contention that the statute is vague and too broad in scope. The crime of sodomy has long been recognized by a host of jurisdictions as consisting of unnatural sex relations. Smith v. State, 150 Ark. 265, 234 S.W. 32 (1921). Likewise, the same authority points out that the crime has always been referred to as the crime against nature. It is so referred to in Ark.Stats.Ann. § 41--814 (Repl.1964). In Smith it is said that the common law furnishes a definition of sodomy and that it corresponds to our present definition. Whether it is called sodomy, buggery, or crime against nature--as it is often called interchangeably--it boils down to a simple definition that it is an unnatural sex act which is condemned. It is the opposite of a natural sex act; the manner of a natural sex act is well known, even to the young...
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Jegley v. Picado
...a. State, 255 Ark. 225, 500 S.W.2d 368 (1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 905, 94 S.Ct. 1610, 40 L.Ed.2d 110 (1974); Connor v. State, 253 Ark. 854, 490 S.W.2d 114 (1973). In both instances, this court made the point that the acts prosecuted did not fall within a zone of privacy but were public ......
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Jegley v Picado
...automobile by two men. See Carter v. State, 255 Ark. 225, 500 S.W.2d 368 (1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 905 (1974); Connor v. State, 253 Ark. 854, 490 S.W.2d 114 (1973). In both instances, this court made the point that the acts prosecuted did not fall within a zone of privacy but were publ......
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Neville v. State
...car parked on the well lighted lot of a public rest and tourist information facility adjacent to an interstate highway); Connor v. State, 253 Ark. 854, 490 S.W.2d 114, appeal dismissed, 414 U.S. 991, 94 S.Ct. 342, 38 L.Ed.2d 230 (1973) (same facts as Connor v. Hutto, supra); People v. Baldw......
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Carter v. State
...We recently had occasion to consider and reject an attack on the constitutionality of this same statute in Connor v. State, 253 Ark. 854, 490 S.W.2d 114. We do not agree with appellants that the difference in the two cases is sufficient to justify a re-examination of our holding there. We w......
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Narrative and jurisprudence in state courts: the example of constitutional challenges to sex conduct regulation.
...Commonwealth v. Piper, 328 A.2d 845 (Pa. 1974) (adult female convicted of prostitution and solicitation of sodomy). Connor v. State, 490 S.W.2d 114 (Ark. 1973) (adult male convicted of fellating a 14 year old boy in a car parked on a public road). Cook v. State, 506 S.W.2d 955 (Tenn. Crim. ......