Joiner v. The State Of Ga.
| Decision Date | 28 February 1879 |
| Citation | 62 Ga. 560 |
| Parties | Joiner. v. The State of Georgia. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Page 560 *
Criminal law. New trial. Before Judge Bartlett. Jones Superior Court. October Term, 1878.
Joiner was indicted for the rape of Emma Anderson, a girl eleven years and three months old. The evidence far the state, consisted in the testimony of the girl and her mother. The former testified positively to the rape; the latter corroborated her on some points, viz: her presence at Joiner's house on the day of the alleged crime, that she was sick and sore in the stomach and groin during the next week; that a week afterwards, when the child changed her under clothes, some blood was found on them. It appears that she did not tell her mother of the rape until some months after it happened, and then only when questioned. There was no evidence for defendant. He was found guilty, recommended to mercy, and sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary. He moved for a new trial on the following, among other grounds:
1. Because the verdict was contrary to law and the evidence.
2. Because the court refused to charge the following request: "That if they should, from the evidence, find that the girl, Emma Anderson, was mentally capable of consenting, *though physically unable to do so, she being over ten years of age, and the defendant, she consenting, did have carnal knowledge of her, then it would be no rape."
The motion was overruled, and defendant excepted.
Blount, Simmons & Hardeman, by Harrison & Connally, for plaintiff in error, cited as follows: Verdict against evidence, 49 Ga. 185; 1 Hale, 633; Roscoe, 863; 55 Ga., 304; W. & S. Med. Juris., 468. On request to charge, 2 Bish., (6 Ed.,) 1123; Code, sees. 4349, 4295. Penalty too severe, 56 Ga., 36.
Robert Whitfield, solicitor-general, by Boiling Whitfield; Robert V. Hardmam, for the state, cited on refusal to charge, ll Ga., 225; 47 Vt., 82; 16 Iewa, 66; 29 Mich., 274.
1. So far as the sufficiency of evidence to support the verdict is concerned, it turns on the credibility of the girl and her mother, and it was for the jury to pass upon that:. It is somewhat strange that the child did not tell her mother sooner, but her failure to do so is but a circumstance from which the guilt of consent or acquiescence in the cohabitation on her own part might be inferred; and she was but eleven years old and had not arrived at years of puberty, and in fact had not attained the menstrual age when it is believed that passion or sexual desire moves a female. She was but a few months over the period when, by the fixed rule of law, she could not consent, and so young that every presumption is that she did...
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Barker v. State
...be considered in determining the question of consent (Rex v. Nichol, Russ. & R. 130; People v. Gage, 62 Mich. 271, 28 N.W. 835; Joiner v. State, 62 Ga. 560; v. Justices of Court of Special Sessions, 18 Hun, 330; 2 Bish. New Cr. Law, § 1124). That this is true is clearly stated by Cooley, J.......
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Swink v. State
...56 Ga. 36. Carnal knowledge of a child under ten, even though she consented to the act, was rape. Stephen v. State, 11 Ga. 225; Joiner v. State, 62 Ga. 560. 'Upon the trial of an indictment for rape, it was competent to show that the female upon whom the crime was alleged to have been commi......
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Coates v. State
...or apparent consent, it was for them to determine whether she was capable of consenting to the carnal act. Dawson v. State, supra; Joiner v. State, 62 Ga. 560; O'Meara v. State, 17 Ohio supra; Moore v. State, Ib. Being within age, the presumption was she could not, and there was no testimon......
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Houston v. State, 12343.
...36. Carnal knowledge of a child under ten, even though she consented to the act, was rape. Stephen v. State, 11 Ga. 225; Joiner v. State, 62 Ga. 560. "Upon the trial of an indictment for rape, it was competent to show that the female upon whom the crime was alleged to have been committed wa......