Davenport v. United States., 602.
| Decision Date | 01 July 1948 |
| Docket Number | No. 602.,602. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
| Parties | DAVENPORT v. UNITED STATES. |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia, Criminal Division.
David Douglas Davenport was convicted of unlawfully assaulting a 15-year-old girl, and he appeals.
Reversed.
Saul G. Lichtenberg, of Washington, D.C., for appellant.
Richard M. Roberts, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Washington, D. C. (George Morris Fay, U. S. Atty., and James C. McKay, William S. McKinley, and Sidney S. Sachs, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellee.
Before CAYTON, Chief Judge, and HOOD and CLAGETT, Associate Judges.
Defendant was convicted of unlawfully assaulting a 15-year-old girl in the Union Station. The government sought to prove that he placed his hands upon her with lascivious intent and threw a towel which touched her. He brings this appeal, assigning several errors. We need discuss only one.
Defendant requested the trial judge to instruct the jury that if they have any reasonable doubt about any material point or question in the case they must resolve such doubt in favor of defendant. This request was refused; instead the judge told the jury:
‘If you have any reasonable doubt finally, after considering all the evidence, both for and against him, as to the guilt of this man, it is your duty of course to bring in a verdict of not guilty.’
We must hold that the defendant was entitled to the instruction he requested and that the instruction given does not satisfy the law as established in this jurisdiction. In the crime of assault, as in most other offenses, there are at least two elements or material facts to be proved, the act itself and the unlawful intent. In the present case the burden was on the government to prove not only the touching but that it was unlawful; in other words, that it was not accidental or innocent. The rule was first stated in Egan v. United States, 52 App.D.C. 384, 287 F. 958, 967, where it was held that a defendant is entitled to have the jury told that the government has the burden of proving the crime charged, in every material part, beyond a reasonable doubt. ‘The law demands acquittal,’ said the Court, ‘unless every material and necessary fact upon which a conviction depends is proven, to the satisfaction of each individual juryman, beyond a reasonable doubt.’
The same Court again held in McAffee v. United States, 70 App.D.C. 142, 105...
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Matter of A.B., 87-1092.
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