Skeen v. State

• Decision Date: 20 February 1907
• Citation: 100 S.W. 770
• Parties: SKEEN v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

100 S.W. 770

SKEEN v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

February 20, 1907.

Appeal from District Court, McLennan County; Sam R. Scott, Judge.

Bill Skeen was convicted of rape, and appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Jennings & Hamilton, for appellant. F. J. McCord, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

DAVIDSON, P. J.

Appellant was convicted of rape, and his punishment assessed at five years' confinement in the penitentiary.

The state proves some suspicious circumstances against appellant—among other things, that he was seen to crawl into a covered wagon where the alleged ravished female was on two occasions. They were not seen in the act of intercourse. A physician testifies, after examining the girl, that she had been penetrated at some time, and that her private parts were sufficiently expansive to entertain the private member of an ordinary man. This examination occurred, perhaps, on same day of the alleged rape. He did not undertake to say that she had been penetrated by the male organ, but had received some instrument or organ as large as that of an ordinary man, that her hymen was gone, and that the indications around the female canal or generative organ showed that she had either been entered by a male organ, or with her finger, or with some other substance; that some children lacerate the hymen themselves with their fingers or some other instrument. Further testifying, he says: "Q. The examination you made of her, what was the condition of the vagina? Was there evidence of any recent attack? A. The vagina was in normal condition. Q. No evidence there of a recent attack, was there? A. There was not especial evidence of any injurious attack; but it may have been a recent attack. It could have been, from the condition. Q. From your examination of her, was it possible for you to tell, from the condition of her vagina, whether or not there had been a recent attack? A. No, sir; at that time we could not positively tell whether or not." Under these circumstances the state rested its case and appellant's counsel demurred to the evidence; the jury being retired for that purpose. The jury were brought back, and the court placed the prosecutrix upon the stand and examined her for some time. Then the state's attorney examined her, all of which appears in the record. The alleged injured female swore most emphatically that appellant had not had intercourse with her at any time. The prosecuting officer then asked if she had not made different statements to himself in his office and before the grand jury. She...