State v. Law
| Decision Date | 02 October 1920 |
| Citation | 179 N.W. 145,189 Iowa 910 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Appellant, v. JOE T. LAW, Appellee |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Polk District Court.--JOSEPH E. MEYER, Judge.
A DEMURRER to an indictment charging the defendant with the crime of conspiracy to commit adultery with one Clara Watts was sustained, and the State appeals.
Affirmed.
H. M Havner, Attorney General, F. C. Davidson, Assistant Attorney General, for appellant.
C. C Putnam, for appellee.
The ground of the demurrer is that the indictment which charged the defendant, a married man, with conspiring, confederating, and agreeing with one Clara Watts to meet together in a room of a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, for the purpose of committing adultery, does not allege a criminal offense. The consummation of the act is also alleged. No third party is involved. The prosecution is based upon Section 5059 of the Code of 1897.
The precise question presented has not been passed upon by this court, but has been before the courts of other jurisdictions. So far as we are advised, they have uniformly held that an agreement to commit an offense which can only be committed by the concerted action of two persons does not amount to a conspiracy. Shannon v. Commonwealth, 14 Pa. 226; Miles v. State, 58 Ala. 390; State v. Huegin, 110 Wis. 189 (85 N.W. 1046); Thomas v. United States, 156 F. 897; United States v. Dietrich, 126 F. 664; United States v. New York Cent. & H. R. R. Co., 146 F. 298; United States v. Burke, 221 F. 1014. To the same effect, see 2 Wharton on Criminal Law (11th Ed.), Section 1602.
The crimes most frequently referred to as coming within the class designated are adultery, bigamy, incest, and dueling. An implied recognition of this rule is contained in State v Clemenson, 123 Iowa 524, 99 N.W. 139. Agreements between a victim and another person to produce an abortion, and for the transportation of a female from one state to another for the purpose of prostitution, are cited by the attorney general as analogous in principle to the case at bar; but the court, in United States v. Holte, 236 U.S. 140, 59 L.Ed. 504, 35 S.Ct. 271, in which the accused was charged with having conspired with another person for her transportation from Illinois to Wisconsin for the purpose of prostitution, specifically recognized the principle above stated. The act of producing an abortion may be committed by a pregnant woman upon herself, without the concurrence or concerted action of another person, but the crime of adultery is possible only by the concerted action of two persons. In such case, the agreement between...
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