Wood v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 17 November 1932
• Citation: 159 Va. 963
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: LEONARD H. WOOD v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.

Page 963

159 Va. 963

LEONARD H. WOOD v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.

Supreme Court of Virginia, Richmond.

November 17, 1932.

Present, Campbell, C.J., and Holt, Epes, Hudgins, Gregory and Browning, JJ.

1. SEDUCTION — Promise of Marriage — Allegation that Prosecutrix Was a Negro — Case at Bar. — In the instant case accused was convicted of the seduction of a woman under promise of marriage. Accused alleged that prosecutrix was a colored woman. The prosecutrix was asked by counsel for the accused who her grandfather was on her mother's side. The court was told that the purpose of this question was to elicit from the witness the information that the ancestor whose identity was sought was a negro, and that the witness, if permitted to answer, would have so testified. The court sustained the objection of the attorney for the Commonwealth to the question.

Held: That the question of whether or not the prosecutrix knew, at the time of the alleged seduction, of the taint in her lineage, was of the very essence of the matter.

2. PRESUMPTIONS AND BURDEN OF PROOF — Presumption as to Knowledge of a Fact — Seduction — Prosecutrix's Knowledge of the Fact that She Was a Colored Woman — Case at Bar. — In the instant case, a prosecution for seduction, accused contended that the prosecutrix was charged with notice of the fact that her grandfather on her mother's side was a colored man. One is presumed to know the law, but there is no such presumption as to the knowledge of a fact. Indeed, in this case, the natural and humane resolve of the mother of the prosecutrix would be to withhold from her the knowledge of what could only humiliate and distress her, in view of the fact that the evidence amply justifies the conclusion that she was received and accepted socially by white persons as one of them.

3. SEDUCTION — Promise of Marriage — Allegation that Prosecutrix Was a Negro — Case at Bar. — In the instant case accused was convicted of the seduction of a woman under promise of marriage. The accused assigned as error the refusal of the court to allow him to show that the prosecutrix was a colored person, whose marriage to him was forbidden by statute, and therefore the promise of marriage, if made, being prohibited by law, was illegal and void.

Held: That it was error to refuse to allow the accused to show that the prosecutrix was a colored person, but it was incumbent upon accused to show that she had knowledge of the fact at the time of the alleged seduction.

Error to a judgment of the Circuit Court of Rockingham county.

The opinion states the case.

Charles A. Hammer, for the plaintiff in error.

John R. Saunders, Attorney-General, and Edwin H. Gibson and Collins Denny, Jr., Assistant Attorneys-General, for the Commonwealth.

BROWNING, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

Leonard H. Wood, the petitioner, at the April term, 1931, of the Circuit Court of Rockingham county, Virginia, was adjudged guilty of a felony and sentenced to serve two and one-half years in the penitentiary. The crime for which he was indicted was that of unlawfully and feloniously seducing, under promise of marriage, Dorothy Short, an unmarried female, of previous chaste character.

The verdict of the jury and the judgment of the court was in accordance with the above statement. The petitioner alleges error in the action of the trial court in overruling his motion to set aside the verdict as contrary to the law and the evidence and in its refusal to allow him to show that the prosecutrix was a colored person, whose marriage with him was forbidden by statute, and therefore the promise of marriage, if such there was, being prohibited by law, the contract was rendered illegal and void and in contravention of the policy of this State.

It is only necessary to dwell upon the latter alleged error.

Section 67 of the Code of 1930 is, in part, as follows: "Every person in whom there is ascertainable any...