Commonwealth v. Jackson

82 Pa. D. & C. 200, 1952 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155
CourtDauphin County Court of Oyer and Terminer
DecidedJanuary 22, 1952
Docketnos. 30, 31 & 32
StatusPublished

This text of 82 Pa. D. & C. 200 (Commonwealth v. Jackson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Dauphin County Court of Oyer and Terminer primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Jackson, 82 Pa. D. & C. 200, 1952 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1952).

Opinion

Neely, J.,

Defendants were tried on three separate indictments charging them [201]*201with rape. The cases were consolidated at the trial and they were all convicted by a jury. The matter is before us on the motions of these defendants for a new trial and in arrest of judgment. In the motion for new trial it is alleged, inter alia, that the verdict is against the evidence and is against the law. And in the motion in arrest of judgment it is contended that the court erred in overruling defendants’ motion for a directed verdict at the close of the Commonwealth’s testimony, and “in failing to find the defendants not guilty.” These contentions of defendants raise the question as to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain these convictions. And in order that this case may be understood, we deem it essential to consider the testimony in certain important aspects as it bears upon the guilt or innocence of these defendants.

The victim in this case was Betty Jane Sutton, a girl 18 years of age, who had graduated from high school in June of 1951. She was short in stature and weighed 105 pounds at the time of the occurrence involved in this case. Defendants were soldiers stationed at the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation. One of them weighed 170 pounds and was 5 feet, 11 inches in height. All of them were robust young men. On the night of July 30, 1951, Miss Sutton had been taken by her mother to a playground near Twenty-ninth Street in the Borough of Penbrook prior to 8 p.m. She was dressed in a blouse, shorts, saddle shoes, socks and underclothing. She left the playground at about 10:30 p.m., and then visited for an hour with friends at their residence situated at Twenty-ninth and Walnut Streets in Penbrook.

At about 11:30 p.m., the young lady proceeded toward her home at 2225 Boas Street in Penbrook. She was running on the pavement on the north side of Walnut Street in a westerly direction in that borough when these three defendants, who were occupants of [202]*202an automobile driven by Barnd, approached her in the car and endeavored to attract her attention. When she continued without responding to their advances, the car was driven close to the curb and one of the defendants spoke to her. She slackened her pace, looked into the car, and then started running again. Walnut Street extends east and west in Penbrook. When the girl came to the intersection of Walnut and Boas Streets, she turned to the right to proceed north on Boas Street to her home. The driver of the car likewise turned north on Boas Street and passed the girl.

Miss Sutton testified that on Boas Street one of these defendants, Goff, accosted her and asked permission to walk with her to her home, but that she said: “I got this far by myself, I can get the rest of the way by myself.” When he persisted in following her, she stated that she walked toward a neighbor’s house pretending that it was her home, and in the hope that her pursuer would thereby be induced to leave. According to Miss Sutton, while she was thus engaged with this one defendant, the two others, Jackson and Barnd, approached in the automobile from the direction opposite to that in which she had been walking. They got out of the car. One of them attempted to kiss her and she slapped his face. She was hit over the back of her neck. One of the defendants took her by the arm and another took the other arm, and the third grabbed her by the leg. They forced her into the automobile. She stated she did not go willingly. There is some evidence that she may have fainted.

Miss Sutton testified that they returned after taking her for a brief ride and she got out of the car near her home. Immediately thereafter, the three of them grabbed her again and pulled her back into the car. On this occasion she threw her pocketbook toward her house, and later the pocketbook was found by her father at the place where she had thrown it. Defend[203]*203ants say she didn’t scream. She says she did, but that they put their hands over her mouth and put up the windows of the car so she could not be heard.

There is an irreconcilable dispute, however, between Miss Sutton and these three defendants as to what occurred on Boas Street and thereafter. Defendants’ testimony shows that they turned off Walnut Street, north on Boas Street, and drove past the girl; that the car was stopped in an alley near its intersection with Boas Street in an endeavor to intercept the girl’s progress, but that she continued past the car without stopping. The driver then backed out of the alley and followed the course taken by the girl generally north on Boas Street.

One of the defendants, Goff, according to their testimony, got out of the car. Goff himself testified that he got out of the car and leaned against a tree and as the girl approached the tree, “I stuck my head out and said ‘Boo,’ ” and asked permission to walk with her to her home. According to defendants’ evidence, Barnd and Jackson remained in the car and proceeded in the same direction on Boas Street.

The two remaining occupants testified that after an interval they returned in the car to find defendant Goff sitting in front of the victim’s house on a step along the pavement. Jackson and Barnd got out of the car, according to the defendants’ testimony, and the various defendants walked back and forth in front of the young lady’s house with her in an endeavor to induce her to get into the car. A light was burning on the porch at that time, according to the defendants, and the girl’s mother was in the house, according to the Commonwealth’s testimony. It was testified that one of the defendants kissed the girl in front of her home, and all of the defendants testified that the young lady willingly got into the car to go for a ride.

[204]*204What occurred on Boas Street is, of course, significant. It is important on the question of credibility and has a bearing on the background and circumstances surrounding this unfortunate episode. However, this case must be viewed in its correct perspective and the essential question as to whether or not rape was committed on this night depends on what transpired after this girl entered the automobile.

Rape is the unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will. The Commonwealth claims that on the night in question these defendants forcibly and against the will of this young lady had sexual intercourse with her on numerous occasions. The essential question here then is what transpired at the time these attacks are alleged to have been made. Defendants drove the car to a lonely road “with grass in the center,” where the car was stopped. There they admitted they disrobed the girl and had intercourse with her. Defendants all said that she gave her consent to the acts of intercourse. The girl’s testimony, however, is that she was forced to have intercourse with these defendants against her will. The jury believed that this young girl had not consented to what was done to her that night.

Miss Sutton testified that when she was in the front seat of the car on the grass road, the defendants started to take her clothes off. She stated that she tried to get out, and did get out partially clothed. Her shoes and socks had been taken off in the car and her blouse was then partially open. She said that Goff walked up to her and she said: “Why don’t you let me go?”, and he said: “I am afraid of them, they might beat me up.” She testified that it was then that she for the first time realized what they were going to do.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 Pa. D. & C. 200, 1952 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-jackson-paoytermctdauph-1952.