Ex Parte Gresham

1932 OK CR 130, 12 P.2d 709, 53 Okla. Crim. 425, 1932 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 125
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided June 24, 1932·No. No. A-8401.·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

CHAPPELL, J.

Fred K. Gresham filed his petition in this court for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was illegally restrained of his liberty by J. E. McFadden, sheriff of Kay county, Okla., and confined in the county jail of said county.

*426 Petitioner alleges that he is charged with the offense of bigamy in that on the 15th day of October, 1931, at Hunnewell, Kan., he married Velma Ebert and at the same time had a living wife, Fawnie I. Gresham, living in the state of Oklahoma.

The facts appear to be that on the 15th day of March, 1928, petitioner married one Fawnie I. Gresham (maiden name not given), and that on the 15th day of October, 1931, in Sumner county, Kan., he was married to Velma Ebert; that Fawnie I. Gresham had sued petitioner for divorce in Oklahoma county, but that the decree was not granted until the 24th day of October, 1931; that immediately after said marriage in Sumner county, Kan., and before the decree was granted, petitioner returned to Kay county, Okla., and there resided and cohabited with Velma Ebert as his wife.

“Bigamy” is defined by section 1862, C. O. S. 1921, as:
“Any person whn having been married to another who remains living, marries any other person except in the cases specified in the next section is guilty of bigamy.”

It is conceded by petitioner and respondent that none of the exceptions haye any application to this case.

In Wilson v. State, 16 Okla. Cr. 471, 184 Pac. 603, this court said:

“The penal provisions of section 4971, Revised Laws 1910, are directed solely against the remarriage of either party to a divorce proceeding to- any other person within six months immediately subsequent to' the rendition of the decree of divorce. Held, the jurisdiction of a prosecution under such statute is in the county where the second marriage takes place; and held, further, where one of the parties to such decree, within the prohibited period of six months, marries another person without the state, and subsequently returns and cohabits, with such person in this *427 state, the subsequent cohabitation not being of the gist of the offense defined by said statute, there is no jurisdiction to prosecute thereunder in this state.”

To the same effect is Harvey v. State, 31 Okla. Cr. 299, 238 Pac. 862, 51 A. L. R. 321.

It is apparent from these authorities that petitioner cannot be prosecuted under section 1862, supra.

The county attorney in his brief says:

“The defendant in his brief relied largely upon the fact that in the charge in the criminal complaint and under the evidence as shown at the preliminary hearing, the defendant could not he charged under section 510, O. O. S. 1921. It was not our intention to so charge the defendant under such section, but we have at all times proceeded under sections 1862 and 2720 of the Compiled Statutes of Oklahoma, 1921.”

Section 2720, supra, reads as follows:

“Upon a trial for bigamy, it is not necessary to prove either of the marriages by the register, certificate or other record evidence thereof, but the same may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases, and when the second marriage took place out of the state, proof of that fact accompanied with proof of cohabitation thereafter in this state, is sufficient to sustain the charge.”

Section 1500, C. O. S. 1921, provides:

“No act or omission shall be deemed criminal or punishable except as prescribed or authorized by this code. The words ‘this code’ as used in the ‘penal code’ shall be construed to mean ‘statutes of this state.’ ”

In City of Shawnee v. Landon, 3 Okla. Cr. 440, 106 Pac. 652, this court said:

“Penal statutes cannot be enlarged by implication or extended by inference. No person can be convicted of *428 a crime unless the act committed is within both the letter and the spirit of a penal statute.”

In State v. Clifford, 3 Okla. Cr. 419, 106 Pac. 557, 558, this court, in the body of the opinion, said:

“The doctrine is fundamental in American law that there can be no constructive offenses, and that statutes are not to be extended by construction to cases not fairly and clearly embraced within their terms. Before a man can be punished, his case must be clearly and unmistakably within the statute; and, if there be any fair doubt whether the statute embraces it, that doubt is to be resolved in favor of the defendant.”

Section 1500, C. O. S. 1921, provides that no act or omission shall be deemed criminal or punishable except as prescribed or authorized by the Code.

In U. S. Wiltberger, 5 Wheat. 76, 5 L. Ed. 37, Judge Marshall said:

“To determine that a case is within the intention of a statute, its language must authorize us to say so. It would be dangerous, indeed, to carry the principle, that a case which is within the reason or mischief of a statute, is within its provisions, so far as to punish a crime not enumerated in the statute, because it is of equal atrocity, or of kindred character, with those which are enumerated.”

As was said in Wilson v. State, supra:

“Our statute [1862] is directed solely against the second marriage. The subsequent cohabitation in this state is no part of the offense.”

.Section 2720 is not a penal statute; it is only a rule of evidence. The crime of bigamy is not enlarged by such statute.

Following the decision of this court in Wilson v. State, supra, the Legislature, in chapter 119, Session Laws *429 of 1925, amended section 510, C. O. ,S. 1921, to read as follows :

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Ex Parte Gresham, 1932 OK CR 130, 12 P.2d 709, 53 Okla. Crim. 425, 1932 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 125 (Okla. Ct. App. 1932).

1932 OK CR 130 (Ex Parte Gresham) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Ex Parte Ward
1947 OK CR 141 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
People v. MacDonald
76 P.2d 121 (California Court of Appeal, 1938)