Gaskin v. State

• Decision Date: 13 October 1898
• Citation: 31 S.E. 740,105 Ga. 631
• Parties: GASKIN v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

31 S.E. 740

105 Ga. 631

GASKIN v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Georgia

October 13, 1898

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Before there can be a conviction for the offense of assault with intent to commit a rape, it must appear that the accused, with the intention of having carnal knowledge of the female forcibly and against her will, did some overt act amounting to an assault upon her. It was therefore error to charge the jury that: "If you find that this defendant formed the intent and design in his heart to have carnal knowledge of [the female alleged to have been assaulted] forcibly and against her will, and, in the accomplishment of that evil design and intent, slipped into her room and secreted himself there, awaiting an opportune moment to carry his evil design into execution, and, being detected, fled and made his escape, the court charges you that that would make such a case as that the necessary element of assault would be in it, and you would be authorized to find this defendant guilty of the offense as charged in the indictment,--that of an assault with intent to rape."

2. The verdict was contrary to law and the evidence, and the refusal of a new trial was error.

Error from superior court, Coffee county; J. L. Sweat, Judge.

Jeff Gaskin was convicted of crime, and brings error. Reversed.

Quincey & McDonald, for plaintiff in error.

John W Bennett, Sol. Gen., for the State.

FISH J.

Jeff Gaskin, a negro boy about 16 or 17 years of age, about dark entered through a window the room of a white girl about 14 years old, and concealed himself under her bed. She came into the room to retire about two hours afterwards, and, hearing a noise under the bed, went for her mother. Upon examination, they discovered him. He immediately fied through the window and escaped. The room contained no articles of value. The girl's father and mother were in an adjoining room, into which the girl's room opened. The mother's bed was three or four feet from that of her daughter's. The girl occupied her room alone. The boy had been working for the girl's father two or three months and had been around the house a good deal. Upon substantially this evidence, Gaskin was convicted of assault with intent to commit a rape upon the girl. His motion for new trial assigned as error the charge of the court as set forth in the first headnote, and alleged that the verdict was contrary to law and the evidence. Upon the overruling of the motion, he excepted.

1. Before the jury would have been authorized to have found the accused guilty...