Green v. State

• Decision Date: 11 October 1909
• Citation: 121 S.W. 949
• Parties: GREEN v. STATE.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

121 S.W. 949

GREEN v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

October 11, 1909.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Van Buren County; Brice B. Hudgins, Judge.

Abe Green was convicted of rape, and he appeals. Reversed.

Hal L. Norwood, Atty. Gen., and C. A. Cunningham, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HART, J.

Abe Green was indicted for the crime of rape. He was tried before a jury, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He has duly prosecuted an appeal to this court.

The testimony is correctly abstracted by the Attorney General as follows: Eura Webb, the prosecuting witness, testified: "My name is Eura Webb. I am 14 years of age. I know the defendant. I went over to Mr. Malone's after some hoes and goobers. I started back home and met Abe Green. He spoke to me, and asked me where Pa was. I told him at home plowing, and he got behind me, and grabbed me around the neck and started with me out in the bushes. And that is the last I know. He was choking me. I don't know exactly how far we were from home or Malone's. The next time I remembered anything I was in my brother's field. There was a string around my neck. I don't know how I got it off. My neck and face were bloody when I got there. My brother, Ellis, took me to Mr. Malone's. This was in Van Buren county, three or four weeks ago. Afterwards I was sore on my back and neck, in the small of my back. I had a bruised place on the back of my leg [indicating]. I had a string around my neck, but don't know where I took it off, nor what I did with it; that was down in the woods. I was thoroughly conscious that the string was there, and that I was choking. The first I remember after that was in Ellis' field. I didn't look at the string when I took it off; haven't any idea how I got it off; haven't seen it since. My private parts were not sore. There was a scratch on the back part of my leg above the knee [shows the court how large]. I couldn't see it, but my mother told me it was there. She examined me the next day. My underskirt was torn down at the hem [shows the court the rent was about 8 or 9 inches long]. I don't know whether it was torn when I met the defendant or not. The first thing I remember after he took me into the bushes was that I was in Ellis' field. I knew there was a string around my neck because I was lying down and choking. I got it off while I was on the ground. When I took it off I fell with my head in my lap." Martha Webb testified: "Eura Webb is my daughter; I know Abe Green. My daughter was assaulted on Monday, the 10th day of May, about three weeks ago. I live near Formósa, in Van Buren county, Ark. Mr. Malone lives about a mile from us in the same county and state. The road between our houses is in the same county and state. Eura left home about 8 o'clock. The next I saw of her was about 10 o'clock. They had started to Mr. Malone's house when I got there. She was bruised up; her neck was red as blood; her underskirt was torn into the hem; and she had a scratch on her leg, about so long [indicating 6 inches], and two splotches on her clothes in front. They were on her bottom skirt; were stiff white splotches, right in front [indicates to the court they were about 1½ inches square]. The mark on her leg look like the print of finger nails [indicates that it was 5 or 6 inches long]. Her neck was black, and there was the print of a string around it where it had buried itself in her neck. There was blood on her neck...