Craig v. State, 35

• Decision Date: 20 November 1957
• Docket Number: No. 35,35
• Citation: 214 Md. 546,136 A.2d 243
• Parties: James Howard CRAIG v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 546

214 Md. 546

136 A.2d 243

James Howard CRAIG v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 35.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Nov. 20, 1957.

Milton B. Allen and George L. Parrish, Baltimore, (Brown, Allen & Watts, Baltimore on the brief), for appellant.

E. Clinton Bamberger, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. (C. Ferdinand Sybert, Atty. Gen., J. Harold Grady, State's Atty., and Joseph G. Koutz, Asst. State's Atty., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and COLLINS, ^* HENDERSON, HAMMOND and PRESCOTT, JJ.

PERSCOTT, Judge.

James Howard Craig, a Negro man, twenty-eight years of age, was convicted of common-law rape upon an eight year old Negro female in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and sentenced to death by the administration of a lethal gas. From this judgment and sentence, he has appealed.

He was tried by the Court, sitting without a jury, and the principal question involved is the sufficiency of the evidence relating to penetration to justify a conviction of rape. It is universally recognized, and conceded by the State in this case, that penetration is an essential element of the crime of rape. Penetration, however slight, will sustain a conviction for the same, but the proof thereof must sustain a res in re; that is, an actual entrance of the sexual organ of the male within the labia (majora) of the pudendum (the external folds of the vulva) of the female organ, and nothing less will suffice. I Wharton, Criminal Law (12th Ed.), sec. 697.

Penetration being an essential element of the crime of rape, it now becomes our duty to examine the testimony and determine whether there was evidence, or proper inferences from evidence, upon which to sustain the finding below that penetration had occurred. Clay v. State, 211 Md. 577, 580, 128 A.2d 634.

The prosecuting witness, an eight year old child, testified that she had been to school on November 29, 1956; that after school she returned home and decided to carry some books to a library a few blocks away; that she was accosted by the defendant, who placed his hand over her mouth and led her, with a knife pointing at her back, to an empty house near by; that the defendant said nothing to her and she said nothing to him; that he took her upstairs to the 'second bedroom' and first he committed an act of cunnilingus with her, and then 'he grabs me and * * * starting messing with me.' When asked how he 'messed' with her, she replied, 'He stuck his hand up in me and I started crying.' She stated that the defendant then pulled off all his clothes, except his underwear, and her 'underwears,' put her in his bed, and started 'messing' with her. She was then asked what the defendant did while he was messing with her, and she replied, 'He put his private in my legs.' She said this hurt her. She was then asked to point to where he put his privates, and she indicated the region of her privates. She testified that she then told him she had to go to the bathroom, to which he consented. When she came out of the bathroom, the defendant forced her back into the bedroom and started 'messing' with her again. She again went to the bathroom and when she came out he again started 'messing' with her. Soon thereafter, she told the defendant it was time for her to go home; whereupon he put on his clothes and left, and she left shortly after he did. She returned home, and later that evening told her mother what had occurred. Her mother notified the police, who took her to a place where she was examined.

Doctor Eleanor Scott testified she examined the child at 9:30 p. m. on November 29, 1956, at the police station. Her examination disclosed no marks on the body of the prosecuting witness; the external genitalia were reddened; the hymen had a 'superficial laceration' at the lower border, which was bleeding; the opening of the hymen admitted 'fingertip' only; there was a superficial laceration of the mucosa of the vestibule; the discharge taken from the vagina was...