State v. Wilkinson

• Decision Date: 08 May 1894
• Parties: The State v. Wilkinson, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

26 S.W. 366

121 Mo. 485

The State v. Wilkinson, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

May 8, 1894

Appeal from St. Louis Criminal Court. -- Hon. H. L. Edmunds, Judge.

Indictment in two counts, the first charged defendant with having abducted Maggie Leona Centennial Roots, a female, etc., for the purpose of prostitution; the second count for the purpose of concubinage, under which count defendant was tried and convicted, and his punishment assessed at five years' imprisonment in the penitentiary.

The state's testimony tended to prove that defendant took the prosecuting witness to a house of assignation in St. Louis on but one occasion, and that they remained there for only a few hours; that this was the only time defendant had sexual intercourse with the prosecuting witness.

Reversed.

McDonald & Howe for appellant.

R. F. Walker, Attorney General, and Morton Jourdan, Assistant Attorney General, for the state.

OPINION

Sherwood, J.

In the State v. Gibson, 111 Mo. 92, 19 S.W. 980, three of the members of this court agreed that the rule announced in State v. Feasel, 74 Mo. 524, holding that the taking away of a girl under age, for the purpose of having sexual intercourse with her even for a single night, was an abduction for the purpose of concubinage within the meaning of the statute, was erroneous, and should be overruled, and two other members of this court held in that case that a single act of sexual intercourse, would not authorize a conviction of abduction for the purpose mentioned.

A like intimation was given in State v. Johnson, 115 Mo. 480. In consequence of these views we hold that State v. Feasel should be disapproved. Therefore judgment reversed and defendant discharged. All concur.