Miller v. State

1930 OK CR 473, 295 P. 403, 49 Okla. Crim. 133, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 266
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided November 15, 1930·No. No. A-7094.·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

CHAPPELL, J.

Plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court of Canadian county of the crime of rape in the first degree, and his punishment fixed by the jury at imprisonment in the penitentiary for 15 years.

The evidence of the state was that the prosecuting witness, Virginia Miller, was the foster daughter of the defendant, having been taken into the Miller home when she was about eight years of age; that about a year after she was taken into defendant’s home he began a course of familiar conduct with her, and that this continued from that time until about November, 1926, when defendant had sexual intercourse with her, and thereafter continued such intercourse until May, 1927. The last act of intercourse, which took place in May, was the one upon which the state relied for conviction.

The defendant denied any act of sexual intercourse or improper conduct with the prosecuting witness and sought to show that she was a “nymphomaniac” and was incapable of speaking the truth. After the jury was impaneled and when the state called the prosecuting witness, *135 Virginia Miller, objection was made to ber competency as a witness, because she was incapable of knowing or testifying to the truth. In the absence of the jury the court heard a large number of witnesses, including some of the leading physicians of the state who had had the prosecuting witness under personal observation, and upon this evidence found the witness was competent to testify. Defendant excepted to the ruling of the court upon the competency of the witness and announced that he would call witnesses to testify before the jury to the same state of facts for the purpose of effecting the credibility of the witness, and in the trial of the case he called a large number of lay witnesses, who testified from their acquaintanceship and association with the prosecuting witness to a state of facts tending to show the prosecuting witness to be untruthful and guilty of such depraved moral practices as to make her evidence unworthy of belief. Defendant also called a large number of the leading physicians of the state, who, in answer to a hypothetical question based upon the state of facts testified to by the lay witnesses, expressed the opinion that the prosecuting witness was a nymphomaniac, and that because of the diseased condition of her mind she would imagine that defendant had had intercourse with her and would testify to that fact, but it would not be true.

In rebuttal the state called a large number of lay witnesses, including school teachers, Sunday school teachers, neighbors, and friends, who testified from an intimate knowledge of the private life of the prosecuting witness that she was a normal girl, having the normal habits and disposition of a girl of her age, and that they had never observed any of the habits or immoral conduct testified to by the witnesses for the defendant. The state also called a number of leading doctors of the state, includ *136 ing Dr. Griffin, superintendent of tlie hospital for the insane, at Norman, who testified that they had personally observed the prosecuting witness and examined her over a period of some time and had applied to her the usual mental test used by the medical profession, and that the prosecuting witness was a normal child, and not a nymphomaniac, and was capable of testifying as a witness.

Thereupon the court made the following finding:

“The Court: Within a period of less than 60 days, the court had before it on the former trial of this case, at which time the testimony referred to was submitted to the court upon the question of competency of the witness Virginia Miller and she was also upon the witness stand in the trial of the case, herself, before the jury and after hearing all the testimony and observing the conduct and demeanor of the witness Virginia Miller, in giving her testimony, the court is convinced that she is not tainted with any mental disability whatever and that she is a competent witness.”

The state argues that this evidence was all inadmissible; that, the court having determined the competency of the witness, it was error to- permit the defendant to introduce the same evidence and permit the jury to- consider the same in determining the credibility of the witness. This court had this question under consideration in the case of Hyde v. State, 26 Okla. Cr. 69, 221 Pac. 787, and there said:

“Where objection is made to the competency of a witness to testify on the ground of mental unsoundness, it is the province of the trial court to- determine the witness’ competency, and its decision will not be disturbed unless a clear abuse of discretion is shown by the record. * * *
“In a prosecution for rape, where it is alleged that the female was incapable through unsoundness of mind *137 of giving legal consent, after the court determined that the prosecutrix is competent to testify as a witness, the credibility of the y.hr.ess immediately becomes a question to be determined by the jury. * * *
“Incapacity to give legal consent to the commission of an act of carnal intercourse does not necessarily imply incapacity to thereafter correctly and truthfully narrate the facts constituting the commission of the act.”

In the case at bar the trial court did give the defendant unlimited opportunity to destroy the credibility of the prosecuting witness by the introduction of this evidence, and he cannot complain that he was in any wise prejudiced thereby. Upon the other hand, the court permitted the state in rebnttal to introduce evidence contradicting that of the defendant, and, under the authority of Hyde v. State, neither the defendant nor the state can justly complain.

The evidence was admissible, not for the purpose of establishing the competency of the witness — that had already been determined by the court as a matter of law— but was admissible as affecting the credibility of the prosecuting witness.

The defendant in his brief says:

“Before making a summary of the testimony in this brief, it is well to remind the court that the defendant, as grounds for a reversal of the judgment of the lower court, relies upon three propositions:
“First: That the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of the jury.”

The prosecutrix testified positively that the defendant did have sexual intercourse with her. She is corroborated by other witnesses and by the facts and circumstances in the case upon every proposition except as to the act of sexual intercourse.

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Miller v. State, 1930 OK CR 473, 295 P. 403, 49 Okla. Crim. 133, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 266 (Okla. Ct. App. 1930).

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