People v. Girdler

• Decision Date: 10 February 1887
• Citation: 65 Mich. 68,31 N.W. 624
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: PEOPLE v. GIRDLER and another.

31 N.W. 624

65 Mich. 68

PEOPLE v. GIRDLER and another.

Supreme Court of Michigan

February 10, 1887

Exceptions from Kent.

The Attorney General, for plaintiff.

O.C Ransom and E.S. Eggleston, for defendants.

MORSE J.

The respondents were found guilty, upon trial in the Kent circuit court, of adultery, the said Girdler being a single man, and the said Carrie Gill a married woman. The only evidence directly tending to establish the guilt of the parties was that of one John C. Campbell, who testified that he was an eye-witness of the criminal act, committed in Zinzer woods, near the residence of the parties, in the latter part of August, 1885. It is claimed that the evidence of said Campbell, by reason of its contradictions and variances and its improbability, is insufficient to convict and inasmuch as the corroborating testimony, if it can be called such, had nothing to do with this alleged act in the Zinzer woods, or the presence of Girdler and Mrs. Gill at or near said woods on the evening claimed, and consisted mostly of what would ordinarily be considered only as innocent and not uncommon familiarities, the court should have instructed the jury that there was not evidence enough to convict respondents of adultery.

Whatever may be our opinion of the truth or probability of Campbell's testimony, we cannot interfere, nor could the court below, with the province of the jury. It was for them to weigh and pass upon the truth or falsity of Campbell's story. If they found it true, they were warranted in finding the respondents guilty, whether there was any other evidence in the case or not. The court instructed the jury, in effect and clearly enough, that they must acquit the respondents, unless they believed the criminal act was committed as testified to by Campbell. The jury must therefore have believed him, and their judgment in that respect cannot be disturbed by us, and could not be controlled by the trial court.

It is also urged that there was no valid marriage proven between the respondent Carrie Gill and her husband, because the ceremony was performed in Kent county by a justice of the peace of a township in Ottawa county. John J. Gill and the respondent Carrie Gill were married in the township of Walker, Kent county, about November 1, 1871, by Peter Chappell, who was at the time of such marriage a justice of the peace of Ottawa county. The parties, immediately after such marriage, lived and cohabited together as husband and wife, and continued to so live and cohabit until about October 1, 1885,--a period of nearly 14 years. There are two children of the marriage now living. The marriage and cohabitation thereafter is sufficient in this state to constitute the...