Dodson v. State
| Decision Date | 23 April 1925 |
| Docket Number | A-4862. |
| Citation | 235 P. 268,30 Okla.Crim. 135 |
| Parties | DODSON v. STATE. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Syllabus by the Court.
Where an information charging statutory rape alleged the crime to have been committed "on or about the 30th day of November, 1918," the state is not required to prove said crime as committed on the date alleged, but may rely upon any specific act of sexual intercourse committed within three years previous to the date of the commencement of the action.
The phrase "of previous chaste and virtuous character," as used in the statute (section 1834, C. S. 1921), means in law as in morals a female who has never voluntarily indulged out of wedlock, in sexual intercourse.
In a prosecution for statutory rape, where the previous chastity of the female is an essential element of the offense as defined by the statute, it cannot be said that the law presumes that the female was not of chaste character when the act was committed, although such chaste character must be alleged, and the burden is on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was of previous chaste and virtuous character.
It is the established practice to require the state to elect, and when the defendant fails to request election by the state between repeated offenses, as shown by the evidence, it is proper for the court, upon its own motion, to require the state to elect.
The courts take judicial notice of the boundaries of the state and counties therein, and the geographical location of cities and towns within the state.
The boundaries of Greer county, as well as the fact that a point 12 miles northwest from Mangum, the county seat, is within Greer county may be judicially noticed.
Credibility of the prosecutrix in a prosecution for statutory rape is for the jury.
In a prosecution for statutory rape, evidence held to warrant a conviction.
Appeal from District Court, Greer County; T. P. Clay, Judge.
Claude Dodson was convicted of rape in the second degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.
A. R Garrett, of Mangum, for plaintiff in error.
George F. Short, Atty. Gen., and Baxter Taylor, Asst. Atty. Gen for the State.
The plaintiff in error, Claude Dodson, was charged with the crime of rape, alleged to have been committed on or about the 30th day of November, 1918, by having sexual intercourse with one Gertrude Keesee, a female over the age of 16 years and under the age of 18 years, of previous chaste and virtuous character, and not the wife of the defendant.
On the trial the jury returned a verdict finding him guilty of rape in the second degree and fixing his punishment at confinement in the penitentiary for a term of five years. He has appealed from the judgment rendered on the verdict.
It is assigned as error that the verdict is not sustained by the evidence. The material and undisputed facts in the case as disclosed by the record are substantially as follows:
The prosecutrix was born on the 4th day of March, 1901; she lived with her parents on a farm about 12 miles northwest of Mangum; that she gave birth to a child at the home of her parents, August 28, 1919. In June, 1919, the defendant went to Texas and was gone for about two years.
The prosecutrix testified that the defendant, Claude Dodson, had kept company with her for about three years, and they were engaged to be married; that he first had sexual intercourse with her going home from church at Wesley Chapel; that she could not remember how many times after that they had sexual intercourse; that she never had sexual intercourse with any other man; that the defendant was the first person she told about being in a family way and after he left the country she told the defendant's sister.
She was then asked the question and answered as follows:
Martha Keesee, an elder sister testified that the defendant visited their home nearly every Sunday, always in a buggy; that they would have singing on Sunday nights and parties during the week, and the defendant always took her sister, Gertrude, to these parties.
The prosecutrix recalled testified that the first intercourse the defendant had with her was in March, 1918; that the last time the defendant had intercourse with her was along about the last of November, 1918; that in June, 1919, was the last time she saw the defendant for two years.
William Keesee, father of Gertrude, testified that she was born March 4, 1901; that the defendant began to visit his daughter Gertrude in the early part of the year 1918; that her child, a baby girl, was born on the 28th day of August, 1919; that he did not see the defendant after June, 1919, for about two years.
When the state rested, the court required the state to elect upon which one of the acts of sexual intercourse related by the prosecutrix it would rely on for a conviction. The state elected March, 1918.
For the defense, Chas. A. Francis testified that the defendant was his first cousin; that in 1918 he lived about a mile from Mr. Keesee's home, and his daughter, Miss Gertrude, visited his wife some time in July, 1918, and that evening while he was lying down on the bed out in the yard Miss Gertrude came and laid down on the bed with him and fumbled over him, and he felt of her legs; then he had to get up and get away from her to keep down trouble; that Miss Gertrude stayed there that night with his wife.
Bill Francis testified that he was a first cousin of the defendant; that he was acquainted with Miss Gertrude Keesee and took...
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