State v. Erickson
| Decision Date | 06 August 1900 |
| Docket Number | 12,216 - (264) |
| Citation | 83 N.W. 512,81 Minn. 134 |
| Parties | STATE v. JOHN ERICKSON |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Defendant was indicted in the district court for Stevens county of the crime of having carnal knowledge of a female child under the age of sixteen years. The court, Steidl, J. made an order overruling a demurrer to the indictment, and at the request of defendant certified to the supreme court for its decision the following questions:
"1. Does the said indictment charge the three degrees of punishment as defined in the statute creating the offense, or either of them?
2. Does the statute creating different punishment for different ages make the age of the female a necessary ingredient of a single offense, or of three offenses?
3. Is the indictment direct and certain as regards the offense charged, or as to the particular circumstances of the offense charged, which are necessary to constitute a complete offense to enable the defendant to make his choice as to a plea of guilty or not guilty?
4. In case that the testimony should show that the age of the female child at the time of the intercourse was under the age of fourteen years, could the court pronounce judgment upon a verdict of guilty as charged?
5. Should the indictment, in order to correctly charge the act charged as the offense, state the age of the female child at the time when the carnal intercourse is charged?
6. In order to charge the act or omission charged as the offense with such a degree of certainty as to enable the court to pronounce a judgment upon a conviction according to the right of the case, should or should not the indictment state the age of the female at the date of the carnal intercourse alleged?
7. Could the defendant under the indictment be convicted of any of the degrees of the crime charged, or sentenced to any of the degrees of punishment provided by statute?"
Order of trial court affirmed.
Carnal Abuse of Child -- Allegation of Age.
An indictment charging defendant that he did "carnally know and abuse" a female child under sixteen years, without alleging the specific age of such child, is sufficient to allege a public offense under G.S. 1894, § 6524.
Conviction of Lesser Offense.
Defendant, under such indictment, can only be convicted of the minor or lesser offense provided for in the statute.
Stephen A. Flaherty and W. W. Erwin, for defendant.
W. B. Douglas, Attorney General, William C. Bicknell, County Attorney, and Spooner & Spooner, for the State.
The defendant is prosecuted under the statute (G.S. 1894, § 6524) for the carnal knowledge and abuse of a female child under the age of sixteen years. The material part of the indictment charges the accused in the following words: That he
"did unlawfully and feloniously carnally know and abuse one * * *, then and there a female child under the age of sixteen years, contrary to the form of the statute," etc.
A general demurrer was interposed challenging the sufficiency of the indictment to state a public offense. After an order of the court below overruling such demurrer, the cause has been properly certified to this court for its opinion upon the questions involving its sufficiency, viz. whether it is necessary to allege the specific age of the female child upon whom the offense was committed, and if, in this respect, the indictment is sufficient, of what offense, under this indictment, may the defendant be convicted?
The statute providing for the punishment of the carnal knowledge and abuse of female children divides offenses of this character into three distinct grades, each based upon the age of the female injured, and the distinctive punishment provided for in each case. Where the female is under ten years of age the punishment is imprisonment in the state prison for life; where the female is ten years of age, and under the age of fourteen years, the punishment is imprisonment in the state prison between seven and thirty years; and lastly, when such female child is between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years the punishment is by imprisonment in the state prison not less than one nor more than seven years, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than three months nor more than one year. G.S. 1894, § 6524.
The proper test by which the sufficiency of a criminal accusation is to be determined is whether the essential and ultimate facts pleaded are consistent with the innocence of the person accused, or, on the other hand, inconsistent with any view but of his guilt; and if the facts so pleaded, taken together, are reconcilable with the innocence of such accused party, the indictment cannot be held to allege a criminal offense. This very simple test is easily illustrated. Suppose in the indictment under consideration it was charged that defendant had abused a female child under the age of seventeen years, clearly no offense would have been set forth under the statute in question for the manifest reason that it is not a crime under such statute to abuse a female over the age of sixteen years, and the supposed accusation might be consistent with carnal knowledge of a child above that age. Further applying this test, and dividing the three offenses according to the age of the injured female, the allegation that such female is under the age of sixteen years is consistent with the supposition that the defendant is innocent of the more serious charge of abuse of a female child under the age of ten or under the age of fourteen years; but by the same test the positive allegation of the indictment that such female is under the age of sixteen years is absolutely inconsistent with any possible supposition that the defendant is innocent of the minor offense provided for in the statute, and it follows necessarily that while, by the proper rules of criminal pleading, the defendant cannot be held to be charged, prosecuted, or convicted under the indictment in the case at bar of having carnally known and abused a female under the age of...
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