State v. Clarke

• Court: Iowa Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: ROTHROCK
• Citation: State v. Clarke, 69 Iowa 294, 28 N.W. 606 (Iowa 1886)
• Decision Date: 21 June 1886
• Parties: STATE v. CLARKE.

69 Iowa 294

28 N.W. 606

STATE

v.CLARKE.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 21, 1886.

Appeal from Henry district court.

The defendant was indicted for the crime of rape. He was tried by jury, and convicted of an assault with intent to commit a rape. He appeals.L. G. & L. A. Palmer, for appellant.

A. J. Baker, Atty. Gen., for the State.

ROTHROCK, J.

It appears from the evidence that the defendant was at New London, in Henry county, on the afternoon of the twenty-fifth day of August, 1884, with a lumber wagon and two horses. He left that place in the evening of that day, and, at his solicitation, Margaret Gallagher, a girl aged 14 years, accompanied him, riding in his wagon to his home at Mount Pleasant, a distance of nine or ten miles. He and the girl did not arrive at Mount Pleasant until the next evening. She testified, as a witness upon the trial, that while on the journey the defendant drove his wagon off the road into a field, and turned his horses out to graze, and remained there all night, and that during the night the defendant frequently attempted to have sexual intercourse with her forcibly and against her will. She remained at the home of defendant all of the next day, and returned to her home late in the evening. The alleged offense was committed on Monday night. The mother of the prosecutrix was at that time absent at Council Bluffs. Some three days thereafter the girl wrote a letter to her mother, in which she not only made complaint of having been assaulted by the defendant, but detailed all of the particulars attending the same in about the same manner, in substance, as she stated the same as a witness on the trial. Her mother received the letter on Friday night, and she arrived at home on Saturday. Upon her return her daughter detailed to her all the alleged facts attendant upon the outrage upon her. The mother was sworn and examined as a witness upon the trial...