Mills v. United States
| Decision Date | 04 January 1897 |
| Docket Number | No. 536,536 |
| Parties | MILLS v. UNITED STATES |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Asst. Atty. Gen. Dickinson, for the United States.
The plaintiff in error was indicted in the United States district court for the Western district of Arkansas at the November term, 1895, for the crime of rape, committed at the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian country, within the Western district of Arkansas, upon one Florence Hendrix, a white woman, and not an Indian, and not a member of any Indian tribe. He was duly arraigned, and pleaded not guilty, and was tried upon the indictment at the February term of the district court in 1896, was found guilty as charged in the indictment, and sentenced to be hanged on the 23d day of June, 1896. A writ of error having been allowed, the record has been removed to this court for review.
Upon the trial the government gave evidence tending to show that on the night of December 7, 1894, James P. Hendrix, the husband of the prosecutrix, occupied a home with her and their four young children in the Indian Territory, about two miles southwest of a place called 'Foyle.' A man named Maxwell was also at the house that night. They lived off the public road about a quarter of a mile. About 8 o'clock that night, while the moon was shining, the defendant rode up to the house, and asked his way to Kepthart's. He said he was lost, and asked the husband, Hendrix, if he would please come to the door, and put him in the right direction When the witness opened the door the defendant 'put his gun on him,' and told witness to come out. The prosecutrix said, 'No; you are not going out,' to which the defendant answered, with an oath, 'Yes, he is.' The husband had on his night clothes, only drawers and shirt,—and was barefooted. The defendant, he says, threatened to kill him, and told him to walk along down the road, saying 'my name is Henry Starr,' who was a notorious train robber. The husband was then sent down the road by the defendant, under threats to kill him if he did not go; and after he went the defendant took the woman, the prosecutrix, and, as she alleged, by threats compelled her to have connection with him twice.
Upon the cross-examination of the prosecutrix it appeared that she was, at the time of the trial, about 25 years old, and that she had been married 9 years. She was married at Mt. Vernon, in Missouri, and from that time had lived a wandering life with her husband, moving, as she said, 'so often I could not tell you just exactly where.' Her testimony in regard to the commission of the offense after the husband had moved down the road was given in great detail, which it is not necessary to here set forth.
As the verdict of the jury is conclusive upon the merits of the case, it becomes of the highest importance that upon an issue of this kind, maintained by evidence such as this record presents, the court should charge the jury with accuracy regarding the ingredients of the crime, and the facts necessary to be proved in order to show the guilt of the defendant. No portion of the charge of the court, under such circumstances, can be said to be harmless if it did not state correctly and fully the law applicable to the crime even although it may be urged that in other portions of the charge the correct rule was laid down.
The crime itself is one of the most detestable and abominable that can be committed, yet a charge of that nature is also one which all judges have recognized as easy to be made and hard to be defended against; and it has been said that very great caution is requisite upon all trials for this crime, in order that the natural indignation of men which is aroused against the perpetrator of such an outrage upon a defenseless woman may not be misdirected, and the mere charge taken for proper proof of the crime on the part of the person on trial. The defendant in this case denied even being present upon the occasion in question. The credibility of the prosecutrix was put in issue by her appearing on the stand as a witness, and, although the jury might have disbelieved the evidence of the defendant when he said that he was not there at all, yet they were under no legal necessity to believe in full the...
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... ... This alone ... was reversible error. ( Adams v. People, 179 Ill ... 633, 54 N.E. 296; Mills v. United States, 164 U.S ... 644, 41 L.Ed. 584, 17 S.Ct. 210; People v. Dohring, 59 N.Y ... ...
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