Connell v. State

111 S.E. 545, 153 Ga. 151, 1922 Ga. LEXIS 39
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 18, 1922
DocketNo. 2944
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 111 S.E. 545 (Connell v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Connell v. State, 111 S.E. 545, 153 Ga. 151, 1922 Ga. LEXIS 39 (Ga. 1922).

Opinion

Gilbert, J.

1. The court (lid not err in charging the jury as follows: “ The mere fact that the grand jury has returned a bill of indictment against the defendant in this ease is no evidence of his guilt. And the defendant enters into the trial of this case with the presumption of innocence in his favor, and that presumption of innocence remains with the defendant throughout the entire trial, in the nature of evidence, as a shield and protection, until the State satisfies your minds by evidence in the case beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt.”

2. The court did not err in charging the jury as follows: “ A reasonable doubt means exactly what it says — a doubt that is founded upon reason. A reasonable doubt may grow out of the evidence, or the want of evidence, or be engendered by the defendant’s statement. While the law requires the State to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt, the law does not require the State to demonstrate the guilt of the defendant to a mathematical or an absolute certainty, and the reasonable doubt is not a vague, conjectural doubt; it is not a fanciful doubt. It is not an imaginative doubt, neither does it mean a possibility that the defendant may be innocent; but, as I said to you just now, it means a doubt that is founded upon reason.”

3. The court did not err in charging the jury as follows: “The court charges you that when the defendant enters a plea of not guilty to this bill of indictment, it puts in issue every material allegation contained therein. It then devolves upon the State to satisfy the minds of the jury, by evidence in the cg,se, to a moral and reasonable certainty and [152]*152beyond a reasonable doubt, of the guilt of the defendant, before you would be authorized to convict him.”

4. The court instructed the jury as follows: “ And I charge you, under a law passed by the legislature in 1918, on page 259, which I shall hereafter read to you, the legislature in 1918 has provided- that no female under fourteen years of age, in the State of Georgia, can give her consent to sexual intercourse; and this act was approved on July 31, 1918, and I now read it to the jury: ' That from and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful for any person to have sexual or carnal intercourse with any female child under the age of fourteen years;” and I charge you as a correct principle of law that since July 31st.in the year 1918, under the provisions of this law, no person can have sexual intercourse with a female under fourteen years of age, whether she con-

- sents to it or does not consent to it; and if any person shall have sexual intercourse with any female under fourteen years of age, with her consent or without her consent, then, under this law which the court has just read to you, such person would be guilty of the offense of rape.” Movant assigns error on this charge, on the ground that 'the act of the General Assembly referred to therein “is unconstitutional and void and deprives the defendant of due process of law under the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United State, which forbids a State from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying any person within its jurisdiction of the equal protection of the laws, and forbids the State from abridging the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the United States.” It is also contended that the act is in conflict with the due-process clause of the State constitution; and further, that the charge virtually amounted to the direction of a verdict, while it was for the jury to say whether the girl’s testimony was corroborated by other testimony as the law requires. These contentions are obviously without merit.

5. The court charged the jury as follows: “ That any person violating the provisions of this act shall be guilty of rape, and on conviction thereof shall be punished as prescribed by section 94 of the Penal Code of Georgia of 1910, unless the jury trying the same shall recommend that the defendant be punished as for a misdemeanor, in which event the same shall be made the judgment and sentence of the court; pro- . vided, however, that no conviction shall be had for such offense on the unsupported testimony of the female in question.” Movant contends that this charge of the court is in conflict with the due-process clause of the constitution of Georgia, and contravenes the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, which declares that no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, or deprive any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of. law.” Defendants contend further that this charge was erroneous for .the reason that the testimony of the female was not corroborated by any other witness in the case. This ground of the motion is substantially a repetition of the assignment of error stated in the next preceding headnote, and it also is obviously without merit.

[153]*1536. The court did not err in instructing the jury as follows: “ Under the provisions of the law which I have read to you, the court charges you that you would not be authorized to convict the defendant in this case on the unsupported testimony of the female alleged to have been raped. Under this section of the code, if you reach the conclusion that the female in question was under fourteen years of age, and if you reach the conclusion that the defendant in this case had sexual intercourse with her during the year 1920, why then the law provides that, before you would be authorized to convict the defendant of the offense of rape, the testimony of the female would have to be corroborated by some fact or other circumstance in the case. The court charges you that the law does not require that corroboration to' be of that strength to satisfy the minds of the jury by evidence in the ease beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt. But the law does require the testimony of the female to be corroborated by some other fact or circumstance in the case. And as to whether or not the testimony of the female in this case has been corroborated by other facts or other testimony in the case is exclusively a question for your consideration- and for your determination.” Movant contends that this charge was error, because “ the court narrowed the jury down to simply a corroboration of the girl by other testimony;” whereas the court should have instructed the jury that a woman in a rape case can be corroborated “ by her clothing being torn, by her making some outcry, by her private parts being injured, or by her being stricken into unconsciousness or made drunk; that these and other circumstances may tend to corroborate the woman, but in this case the court simply told the jury that the woman must be corroborated in some way. . . The defendant could not be convicted, according to the act of the legislature of 1918, upon the testimony of the girl alone, even though she be under the age of fourteen, unless her testimony is corroborated by other testimony in the case, going to connect him with the commission of the crime of rape.”

7.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
111 S.E. 545, 153 Ga. 151, 1922 Ga. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/connell-v-state-ga-1922.