Rodgers v. State
| Decision Date | 05 December 1891 |
| Citation | 17 S.W. 1077 |
| Parties | RODGERS v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from district court, Dallas county; CHARLES FRED TUCKER, Judge.
Indictment of A. L. Rodgers for rape. Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction. Affirmed.
M. G. Anderson, for appellant. Richard H. Harrison, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction for rape with the death penalty assessed. As stated in the charging part of the indictment, it was alleged that appellant, "in and upon Rhoda May Dexter, a female then and there under the age of 10 years, did make an assault, and the said A. L. Rodgers did then and there ravish and have carnal knowledge of said Rhoda May Dexter, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state." The carnal knowledge of a female under the age of 10 years, with or without consent, and with or without the use of force, threats, or fraud, is declared by our statute to be per se rape. Pen. Code, art. 528.
It is insisted that the court erred in its charge in failing to instruct the jury with regard to force, or, rather, to explain the character and degree of force essential to the crime of rape, as declared by article 529 of the Penal Code, to the effect that the definition of "force," as applicable to assault and battery, applies also to the crime of rape, and it must have been such as might reasonably be supposed to overcome resistance, taking into consideration the relative strength of the parties and other circumstances of the case. This position is not maintainable. The court did not err in failing so to charge, because the question of force or of assault does not enter into or become one of the parts or elements of rape committed upon a female under the age of 10 years. Carnal knowledge of such female is rape, without the use of any force.
Another objection is urged to the charge of the court with regard to the fact of penetration. The charge is not obnoxious to the objection that it was in contravention of article 532 of the Penal Code, and that it was also upon the weight of evidence. The charge instructed the jury that, to warrant a conviction for rape, the fact of penetration must be established beyond a reasonable doubt, and explained what penetration meant. This further language is used: "It is not necessary that the act of copulation should have been complete, but penetration only as above expained is necessary to be proved, though such penetration need not have been to any particular depth." This is, we think, a proper construction to be placed upon article 532 of the Code. Penetration, whether with or without injection or emission, is sufficient, if proven on trials for rape. Johnson v. State, 27 Tex. App. 164, 11 S. W. Rep. 106. See Willson, Crim. St. §§ 913, 915. There is no question as to the evidence upon this point. Two medical experts who examined the little girl within a very short time after the alleged rape testify most positively and emphatically that her private parts had been penetrated and the hymen ruptured. In so far as the charge of the court is concerned, it is a plain, concise, fair, and full exposition of all the law applicable to the case.
The court did not err in admitting the testimony of the witness J. T. McGuire as to meeting the parties, and hearing a conversation between them, just prior to the alleged rape. The...
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...38 Ohio App.3d 152, 154, 528 N.E.2d 567 (1986); Brooks v. State, 24 Md.App. 334, 342, 330 A.2d 670 (1975); Rodgers v. State, 30 Tex.App. 510, 528–29, 17 S.W. 1077 (1891). 11. Dye alleges that the limiting instruction was an improper judicial comment on the evidence because referring to Elli......
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...since record disclosed no improper conduct by father nor any influence by father on his daughter's testimony); Rodgers v. State, 30 Tex.App. 510, 17 S.W. 1077 (1891) (no error in prosecution for statutory rape in permitting aunt of ten year old victim to sit near witness during her testimon......
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Pawson v. State, 367-90
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