Monroe v. State
| Decision Date | 06 November 1893 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | GEORGE MONROE v. THE STATE |
FROM the circuit court of Warren county, HON. JOHN D. GILLAND Judge.
Appellant a negro, was convicted of the rape of a negro girl eleven years of age.
The indictment charged that the defendant, with force and arms feloniously and violently committed the rape. A demurrer to the indictment, on the ground that it failed to aver that the crime was forcibly committed, was overruled.
On the trial, the prosecutrix testified to the commission of the offense, and that it was forcibly done; that she resisted to the utmost and cried, but that she did not cry aloud, because she knew no one was near enough to hear. Her father and mother were working on the plantation, about a mile from the house. No one was about the house except her younger brother and herself, and she was alone at the time of the alleged assault. This was about noon, when the defendant, who was working for her father, had gone to the house to feed the mules. The defendant admitted the intercourse, but testified that the girl consented. No other person was at the house at the time of the occurrence. One witness testified to having passed there about that time, but heard no noise. The prosecutrix testified that she suffered great pain when ravished by the defendant, and that she had never before had sexual intercourse. Her mother testified that she made an examination of her person, and that there were no evidences of violence, except that the parts were swollen. Another woman, who was present and assisted in the examination testified that she saw no evidences that the girl was hurt. After the alleged rape, the girl remained at the house, and told no one except her little brother. At night, when her mother returned from work, she met her and told what had occurred.
The court gave several instructions for the state, as to which special complaint seems to have been made, and several for the defendant. The following instructions, asked for the defendant, were refused:
The defendant was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. A motion for a new trial was overruled; hence this appeal. The opinion contains a further statement of the case.
Reversed and remanded.
W. J. Vollor, for appellant,
Filed an assignment of errors, but no brief.
Frank Johnston, attorney-general, for the state.
1. The demurrer to the indictment was properly overruled. It was sufficient to aver that the rape was violently committed. 2 Bish. on Crim. Pro., § 959.
2. The court properly refused the eighth, ninth, and tenth instructions asked by the defendant. The testimony of the prosecutrix alone was sufficient to convict.
3. The conviction rests entirely upon the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecuting witness, it is true, but the jury was left to decide whether her statement or that of the defendant was to be believed. Having accepted her statement as true, I do not think the verdict can be disturbed.
No error was committed by the court in the trial of this case, but in our opinion the verdict should not be permitted to stand. It is true that conviction of this detestable crime may be had on the uncorroborated testimony of the person raped, but it should always be scrutinized with caution, and where there is much in the facts and circumstances in evidence to discredit her testimony, it is not sufficient to sustain a verdict of guilty. 1 Hale, 635 et seq.; Innis v. State, 42 Ga. 473; People v. Hulse, 3 Hill 309; 19 Am. & Eng. Enc. L., p. 958.
The observations of the court in People v. Hulse, 3 Hill 309, are just and appropriate, and commend themselves to our judgment.
There is much in the testimony of the girl charged to have been raped by the accused, to throw doubt on her testimony. There is not a single corroborating circumstance to support her statement, and much to suggest its falsity. Under the Mosaic law, "if the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel" given in marriage, and complained of as not a maid, she was conclusively held to have played the whore, and...
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