Thompson v. Aldredge, 12632.

Citation187 Ga. 467,200 S.E. 799
Decision Date12 January 1939
Docket NumberNo. 12632.,12632.
PartiesTHOMPSON. v. ALDREDGE, Sheriff.
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia

Syllabus by the Court.

A person convicted on an indictment charging her with sodomy, both participants in the act being alleged to be females, will be discharged on habeas corpus on the ground that she is being illegally restrained of her liberty, in that the indictment on which she was convicted was null and void.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; Paul S. Etheridge, Judge.

Habeas corpus proceeding by Ella Thompson against J. C. Aldredge, sheriff. To review an adverse judgment, plaintiff brings error.

Reversed.

J. C. Miner, B. J. Dantone, James R. Venable, and John G. Morris, Jr., all of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

John A. Boykin, Sol. Gen., and J. W. Le Craw, both of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

GRICE, Justice.

This record presents the question whether the crime of sodomy, as defined by our law, can be accomplished between two women. By Code, § 26-5901, sodomy is defined as "the carnal knowledge and connection against the order of nature, by man with man, or in the same unnatural manner with woman." Wharton, in his Criminal Law, volume 1, 11th Ed., § 754, lays down the rule that "the crime of sodomy proper can not be accomplished between two women, though the crime of bestiality may be." We have no reason to believe that our law-makers in defining the crime of sodomy intended to give it any different meaning. Indeed the language of the Code above quoted seems to us to deliberately exclude the idea that this particular crime may be accomplished by two women, although it may be committed by two men, or a man and a woman. That the act here alleged to have been committed is just as loathsome when participated in by two women does not justify us in reading into the definition of the crime something which the lawmakers omitted.

The petitioner's conviction was a nullity and she is entitled to be discharged.

Judgment reversed.

All the Justices concur.

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3 cases
  • Bowers v. Hardwick
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • June 30, 1986
    ...no reported decision involving prosecution for private homosexual sodomy under this statute for several decades. See Thompson v. Aldredge, 187 Ga. 467, 200 S.E. 799 (1939). Moreover, the State has declined to present the criminal charge against Hardwick to a grand jury, and this is a suit f......
  • Cornelious v. State, 13886.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Georgia
    • October 15, 1941
    ...v. Commonwealth, 118 Ky. 870, 82 S.W. 592, 4 Ann.Cas. 1039; Watts v. State, 75 Tex.Cr.R. 330, 171 S.W. 202. In Thompson v. Aldredge, 187 Ga. 467, 200 S.E. 799 (habeas-corpus case) the indictment showed on its face that it was void, and the decision of this court holding that the trial judge......
  • Carter v. State
    • United States
    • United States Court of Appeals (Georgia)
    • June 12, 1970
    ...and connection against the order of nature, by man with man, or in the same unnatural manner with woman' was held in Thompson v. Aldredge, 187 Ga. 467, 200 S.E. 799 to exclude the commission of such acts between two women as sodomy, and then in Riley v. Garrett, 219 Ga. 345(1), 133 S.E.2d 3......
1 books & journal articles
  • Powell v. State: the Demise of Georgia's Consensual Sodomy Statute - Gregory K. Smith
    • United States
    • Mercer University School of Law Mercer Law Reviews No. 51-3, March 2000
    • Invalid date
    ...Ga. App. 439, 198 S.E. 823 (1938). 28. Id. at 439, 198 S.E. at 823 (citing Green v. State, 79 S.W. 304, 304 (Tex. Crim. App. 1904)). 29. 187 Ga. 467, 200 S.E. 799 (1939). 30. Id. at 467, 200 S.E. at 800. 31. Id. 32. Id. 33. Id. 34. 1949 Ga. Laws 275, 276. 35. 79 Ga. App. 380, 53 S.E.2d 707 ......

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