State v. Ryan

• Decision Date: 03 January 1888
• Citation: State v. Ryan, 15 Or. 572, 16 P. 417 (Or. 1888)
• Parties: STATE v. RYAN.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

16 P. 417

15 Or. 572

STATE v. RYAN.

Supreme Court of Oregon

January 3, 1888

Appeal from circuit court, Linn county. Indictment for burglary.

W.R Bilyeu, for appellant.

Geo. W Belt, Dist. Atty., for the State.

STRAHAN J.

The defendant was indicted for the crime of burglary by the grand jury of Linn county, and was convicted of an assault with the intent to commit rape, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for one year, from which judgment this appeal is taken. The indictment is as follows:

"IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON, FOR THE COUNTY OF LINN.

"The State of Oregon, Plaintiff, vs. Charles Ryan, Defendant.

"Charles Ryan is accused by the grand jury of the county of Linn, in the state of Oregon, by this indictment, of the crime of burglary, committed as follows: The said Charles Ryan on the eighth day of November, A.D. 1887, in the county of Linn and state of Oregon, then and there being, did then and there feloniously and burglariously break and enter in the night-time a dwelling-house, in which there was at that time a human being, namely, Ella M. Mack, with the intent to committ rape therein, by forcibly breaking an outer door of said dwelling-house; and the said Charles Ryan, having so entered said dwelling-house with such intent, did then and there commit an assault upon Ella M Mack, a person lawfully then in such house. Contrary to the statutes in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Oregon.

"Dated at Albany, in the county of Linn and State of Oregon, the fifteenth day of November, A.D. 1887. GEO. W BELT, District Attorney."

And the jury returned the following verdict:

"The State of Oregon vs. Charles Ryan.

"We, the jury in the above-entitled cause, find the defendant guilty of assault with intent to commit rape. Foreman, WILLIAM RALSTON."

Appellant's counsel has suggested and argued several objections presented by this record which I will now consider.

It is claimed that, the indictment being for the crime of burglary the defendant cannot be convicted of any other offense; that this is not a case within section 1382, Hill's Code, where an indictment is for a crime consisting of different degrees, and that the jury may find the defendant not guilty of the degree charged in the indictment, and guilty of any degree inferior thereto, or of an attempt to commit the crime of any such inferior degree thereof. Under our statute, burglary is not a crime consisting of different degrees. It is wholly unlike the various degrees of...