Simmons v. State

• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: COOK, J.
• Citation: Simmons v. State, 105 Miss. 48, 61 So. 826 (Miss. 1913)
• Decision Date: 19 May 1913
• Parties: J. E. SIMMONS v. STATE

61 So. 826

105 Miss. 48

J. E. SIMMONS v. STATE

Supreme Court of Mississippi

May 19, 1913

March 1913

APPEAL from the circuit court of Lincoln county, D. M. MILLER Judge.

J. E Simmons was convicted of rape and appeals.

Appelant was convicted of rape, and appeals. Among other errors assigned is the granting of the following instructions at the request of the state:

"1. The court instructs the jury, for the state, that if you believe from the evidence, and circumstances in evidence that the defendant feloniously had intercourse with his daughter, a female under the age of twelve years, then he is guilty, and you should so find.

"2. The court further instructs the jury that the crime of rape may be proven by circumstances, and it is not necessary to have an eyewitness to the deed, if the circumstances in evidence are sufficient to create in the minds of the jury a belief that the accused party is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

"3. The court further instructs the jury that a female child less than twelve years of age cannot consent to sexual intercourse, and if a man has intercourse with such child voluntarily, so far as he is concerned, then he would be guilty of rape, regardless of whether the female consented or not."

Reversed and remanded.

R. W. Cutrer, for appellant.

Strip this cause of the incompetent and irrelevant testimony introduced by the state and there is absolutely nothing upon which to warrant the conviction of appellant under the rules established by this court in Munroe v. State, 71 Miss. 196.

Baker v. State, 82 Miss. 84. Under the facts in this case this judgment ought to be reversed and will be reversed if the court adheres to its former holdings upon the question of facts.

There is absolutely no evidence here that appellant had sexual intercourse with Miss Retta Simmons. She denies it, as can be seen from her evidence taken on the plea in abatement and the state relies for a conviction in this case solely upon the circumstances of the flimsiest kind. There is no doubt but that the incompetent testimony of Drs. Brumfield, Crawford and Smith is responsible for the verdict of the jury in this case. Dr. Brumfield was permitted over appellant's objection to state the cause, in his opinion, of Miss Simmon's condition, and he was permitted to give as evidence that it was his opinion she had been raped. We say this testimony is not admissible, and has been so held by the following well considered cases: State v. Hull, 45 W.Va. 767, 32 S. 240; Nooman v. State, 55 Wis. 258; 12 N.W. 379; State v. Heux, 109 Mo. 654; Pearson v. State, 97 Miss. 841; 10 Encyclopedia of Evidence, 593, 594.

The court then permitted this witness to testify for the state over appellant's objection, that Miss Simmons told him she had been raped. This testimony is not admissible. At the best it is hearsay. If Miss Simmons had been introduced as a witness and had testified to the outrage, then, perhaps, this testimony would have been admissible, but where she is not introduced as a witness for the state, and does not testify to an outrage, we submit this testimony is not admissible and the defendant's objection to same should have been sustained. 23 Am. and Eng. Ency. of Law, 2nd Ed. (4) p. 877, and cases there cited.

The doctor's opinion that Miss Simmons could not have received the injuries as testified to by him from falling on a barbed wire fence falls within the same condemnation. The testimony of Drs. Crawford and Smith being the same as that of Dr. Brumfield we will not discuss it separately, but make the same objection to the admissibility of their testimony as we make to Dr. Brumfield's.

After the state had introduced all of its evidence and rested its case the appellant moved the court to exclude all of the evidence and direct a verdict for the defendant. This motion the court overruled. We think this case should have ended then, because we say there is no evidence to support a verdict of guilty.

Geo. H. Ethridge, assistant attorney-general, for the state.

In a prosecution for rape, the state may show that complaints were made, but not the particulars as declared by the prosecutrix or person raped. This rule is perfectly competent to show as making out a case for the state. The declarations of the girl that she was raped, in connection with the physical injuries, and not allowing her statements as to details to be offered in evidence, see Ashford v. State, 81 Miss. 414, 33 So. 174; Anderson v. State, 82 Miss. 784, 35 So. 202; Dickey v. State, 86 Miss. 525, 38 So. 776.

In proof of an assault with intent to rape, it was held by the Oregon court that the mother of the prosecutrix may testify as to the manner of the girl and appearance and condition of her person shortly after the alleged assault, and also to the fact that she made a disclosure, although the prosecutrix is a child of tender years. State v. Sargent, 32 Ore. 110, 49 P. 889.

Where a defendant introduces details of a rape, or introduces evidence to contradict the state's witnesses, evidence may be introduced as to who the prosecutrix said it was that ravished her, in her statements. Bray v. State, (Ala.) 31 So. 107.

On this authority, I think the court erred in declining to admit the statements of the girl made to the doctor that her father was the author of her ruin or condition, after the boys, as witnesses for their father, had testified as to how the injuries came about. As to the time that the declarations may be made, the circumstances should be considered.

The New York court held that in a prosecution for rape, committed by a father on his daughter, evidence sometime after the crime was permitted. The daughter disclosed it to others, and complaints therefore were properly received. People v. Garner, 169 N.Y. 585, 62 N.E. 1099.

Lapse of time between the commission of a crime for rape and complaint made by the prosecutrix does not affect the admissibility, but affects only the weight of the evidence, and the evidence of the delay in the complaint may be considered in the light of surrounding circumstances. Trimble v. Territory, 8 Ariz. 273; 71 P. 932. In the case of Beenett v. State; 102 Ga. 656, 29 S.E. 918, the court held that delay in making the complaint or statement of alleged assault with intent to rape may be satisfactorily explained.

In People v. Marrs, 125 Mich. 376, 84 N.W. 284, the court held that the prosecution may show when and to whom the prosecutrix first made complaint of the assault, and the reason she did not make it earlier; and in the case of State v. Peres, 27 Mont. 358, 71 P. 162, the court held that the rule which required a prosecutrix to make immediate outcry or stand discredited on trial, does not apply where the female raped was under the age of consent.

On the point raised as to the quashing of the indictment or abating it, section 1427 of the Code of 1906, prescribes the manner in which this objection shall be made. I submit that under that section the objection came too late. The defendant should have moved to abate within the time allowed by statute. In any event, the point is not well taken.

It is also contended that the court erred in giving instructions to the state, and instruction number two is especially singled out as being objectionable. That instruction appears on page thirteen of the record and is in the following language:

"The court further instructs the jury that the crime of rape may be proven by circumstances, and it is not necessary to have an eyewitness to the deed if the circumstances in evidence are sufficient to create in the minds of the jury a belief that the accused party is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

The court should read this instruction in connection with instruction number nine given for the defendant, which explains any omission that may have been in the state's instruction, and when read as an instruction altogether on one proposition of law, it correctly presents the law of the subject, and the court has so repeatedly held this to be the rule, that it is unnecesary to cite authorities that all instructions in the case must be considered together.

I desire to make a remark, however, about the...