Branham v. State

1919 OK CR 228, 182 P. 525, 16 Okla. Crim. 308, 1919 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 205
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 23, 1919
DocketA-2682
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1919 OK CR 228 (Branham v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Branham v. State, 1919 OK CR 228, 182 P. 525, 16 Okla. Crim. 308, 1919 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 205 (Okla. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

ARMSTRONG, J.

The plaintiff in error, Fred Bran-ham, was by information prosecuted for having sexual intercourse with Hazel Ranking, she being a female of the age of 17 years, and of previous chaste and virtuous character, and not the wife of the defendant, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary at McAlester for the term of five years. To reverse the judgment rendered, he prosecutes this appeal.

The material uncontradicted evidence is that the prosecuting witness, an unmarried female, under 18 years of age at the time of the alleged offense, often spent the night in the home of the defendant, who was a married man, and the prosecuting witness and the defendant were intimate *310 friends; that they often exchanged notes expressing affection; that he made her a present of a watch; that she became pregnant, and he gave her money so she could go away from her home, which was in the vicinity of the defendant’s home, so that her family would not know where she was; that the defendant thought that the prosecuting witness loved him, and that he expected that he had told her that he loved her; that the defendant had told Bob Wilkinson, a school-teacher, that he was having illicit intercourse with the prosecuting witness; that after the prosecuting witness had given birth to a child defendant went to see it, and said that he was satisfied, prior to and after seeing it, that it was his child.

That the prosecuting witness and the defendant had had illicit intercourse is admitted by the defendant, but the evidence is in conflict as to the number of such acts and when they took place, the prosecuting witness testifying that there were a number of such acts, and that all of said acts took place in the home of the defendant, while the defendant testified that he only engaged in one act of sexual-intercourse with the prosecuting witness, and that was in a cornfield. There was also uncontradicted evidence that the prosecuting witness had never had sexual intercourse with any other person than the defendant, and that she constantly associated with the wife of the defendant, and went to the home of the defendant at the invitation- of his wife, and was on intimate terms with the said wife prior to the wife becoming advised of the wrongdoing of her husband and the prosecuting witness. The previous character of the prosecuting witness for chastity and virtue was not attacked.

Among other instructions given the jury by the court, was instruction No. 7, which reads:

*311 “'Gentlemen of the jury, there has been offered in this case evidence of certain other and different alleged acts of sexual intercourse had and accomplished between the defendant and the prosecuting witness, Hazel Runking, of other than the specific act alleged in the information in this case as having occurred on or about- day of August, 1912.

“This evidence, gentlemen of the jury, was admitted for one purpose and only one, and that is that it was competent and relevant for the purpose of showing the relations of the parties and as corroborative circumstances to be considered by the jury in determining whether or not the defendant committed the specific act charged.”

Errors assigned and argued in defendant’s brief are: (1) The-.verdict is not sustained by the evidence; (2) that the court did not directly and specifically instruct what under the law constitutes a previous chaste and virtuous character of the female under consideration. The several other errors assigned in the petition, which are not referred to or argued in the brief of defendant, will be regarded as abandoned, and will not be considered.

The defendant contends, without citing an authority in support thereof, that the evidence, especially for the reason that it shows a previous act of illicit intercourse between the prosecuting witness and the defendant prior to the time of the act alleged in the information, and that the prosecuting witness was not of chaste and virtuous character at the time charged in the information, is insufficient to support the verdict rendered. With this contention we cannot agree. The uncontradicted evidence is that at the time of the alleged illicit intercourse ■ the prosecuting' witness was under the age of consent, and that prior to her illicit intercourse with the defendant she was of chaste and .virtuous character,-and had never had sexual intercourse with any *312 man, and the defendant testified that he had had one act of sexual intercourse with her, and that he saw the child that was born to the defendant shortly after its birth, and said he knew, before and after seeing it, that it was his child, while the prosecuting witness testified that she had had many acts of sexual intercourse with the defendant, and thus it became the province of the jury to say whom, they believed. That the prosecuting witness was induced to submit to the criminal embraces of the defendant by reason of her affection for him accentuates rather than palliates the guilt of the defendant. The contention of the defendant that the prosecuting witness having had sexual intercourse with the defendant prior to the time named in the information shows that she was not at the time alleged in the information of chaste and virtuous character, and therefore the evidence is insufficient to warrant the conviction of the defendant, is fully answered in the well-considered opinion of Judge Doyle in Castleberry v. State, 10 Okla. Cr. 504, 139 Pac. 132, adversely to the contention of the defendant, in which he says:

“It is contended, however, that because the prosecutrix testified that the defendant had sexual relations with her prior to ‘-the-day of May, 1911, the time alleged in the indictment, she was not on the- day of May, 1911, or at any time after the first act of sexual intercourse with the defendant, a female of previous chaste and virtuous character; therefore he cannot be convicted of any subsequent act, and counsel cite the case of State v. Dacke, 59 Wash. 238, 109 Pac. 1050, 30 L. R. A. (N. S.) 173. This contention presents the question to this court for the first time, and it becomes necessary therefore to determine whether a man may gratify his lust and passion by persuading a chaste child to permit him to have sexual intercourse with her, and afterward^ repeat the act, and then, in a prosecution for * * * rape, take advantage of his pre *313 vious defilement of the child to avoid the application of the statute. The testimony of the prosecutrix tended to prove several acts constituting the crime charged. The defendant did not move or request the court to require the state to elect on which act it would rely. The court properly instructed the jury, in effect, that if they found from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, within the county and state, on the-- day of May, 1911, or at any time within three years prior to the finding of the indictment,, did have sexual intercourse with the prose-cutrix, and that she was at the time under 18 years of age and of previous chaste and virtuous character, then they should find the defendant guilty of rape in the second degree. Our Code provides that an indictment or information must charge but one offense. Rev. Laws 1910, sec. 5741.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1919 OK CR 228, 182 P. 525, 16 Okla. Crim. 308, 1919 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/branham-v-state-oklacrimapp-1919.