Rahke v. State

81 N.E. 584, 168 Ind. 615, 1907 Ind. LEXIS 145
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 7, 1907
DocketNo. 20,888
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 81 N.E. 584 (Rahke v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rahke v. State, 81 N.E. 584, 168 Ind. 615, 1907 Ind. LEXIS 145 (Ind. 1907).

Opinion

Monks, J.

An indictment was returned against appellant charging tbat be “on December 21, 1905, at and in tbe county of Marion and in tbe State of Indiana, did then and there, unlawfully, feloniously and forcibly, in a rude, insolent and angry manner, touch, push, strike and choke one Edna Iddings, a woman, with intent then and there, [617]*617and thereby her, said Edna Iddings, feloniously, forcibly and against her will to ravish and carnally know,” etc. Trial by jury and verdict of guilty of assault with intent to commit the crime of rape as charged in the indictment. Over a motion for a new trial, final judgment was rendered on this verdict.

Counsel for appellant complain of instructions nine, ten and fifteen, given by the court of its own motion.

In instruction nine the court informed the jury that, “to make out the case of assault and battery with intent to commit rape, charged in the indictment, the State must establish by the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant did lay or put his hands upon the person of Edna Iddings;, that he did so with the thought, purpose and intention in his mind of inducing her thereby to submit against her will to sexual intercourse with him, and that he intended to have sexual intercourse with her at the time he laid or put his hands upon her person, and that she at the time was a female, who was not then his wife.”

By said instruction ten, the court told the jury that, “to make out the case of an assault with intent to commit a rape, the State must establish by the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant, having the present ability to do so, unlawfully attempted to commit a violent’ injury upon said Edna Iddings, with the thought and intention in his mind of inducing her thereby to submit, against - her will, to sexual intercourse with him, and that he intended to have sexual intercourse with her at the time of the assault, and that she at that time was a female, who was not then his wife.”

The only objection urged to said instructions is that they omit the element of force which is essential to the crime of rape upon a female of fourteen years of age or over. Acts 1905, pp. 584, 662, §361, §2004 Burns 1905.

[618]*6181. 2. [617]*617The statute upon which said indictment was based reads as follows: “Whoever perpetrates an assault or an assault [618]*618and battery upon any human being, with intent to commit a felony, shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the state prison not less than two years, nor more than fourteen years, and be. fined not exceeding $2,000.” Acts 1905, pp. 584, 660, §352, §1995 Burns 1905. The part of the statute defining the offense of rape, in force when it is alleged that the offense charged was committed, necessary to the determination of this ease, is as follows: “Whoever unlawfully has carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly against her will, or of a female child under fourteen years of age * * * is guilty of rape.” §2004, supra. Under said statute there are two classes of facts, each of which constitutes a rape. By the first it is made rape unlawfully to have carnal knowledge of a woman “forcibly against her will!” By the second, it is made rape to have carnal knowledge of a female-child, under the age of fourteen years. All females of the human species fourteen years of age and over are deemed women within the first clause of the statute defining rape. Under the second clause of said statute, the offense is rape with or without the consent of the female child. Greer v. State (1875), 50 Ind. 267, 269, 19 Am. Rep. 709; Gillett, Crim. Law (2d ed.), §726.

3. The charge in this case is assault and battery with intent to commit rape, under said first clause; that is to have carnal knowledge of the prosecuting witness, “a. woman, forcibly and against her will.” To make out a case of assault, or assault and battery with the intent to commit the crime of rape, as charged, it was necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt’that appellant committed an assault, or an assault and battery as charged, and that the same was committed with the intent then and there and thereby unlawfully to have carnal knowledge of the prosecuting witness “forcibly against her will.” Hollister v. State (1901), 156 Ind. 255, 258.

[619]*6194. Force is an essential element of the crime of rape. It is held that the element of force need not be actual, but may be constructive or implied. If the woman is mentally unconscious from drink or sleep, or from .other cause is in a state of stupefaction, or is incapable from mental disease (whether disease be idiocy or mania), so that the act of unlawful carnal knowledge on the part of the man was committed without her conscious and voluntary permission, the idea of force is necessarily involved in the wrongful act itself; the act of penetration and such carnal intercourse is rape. 2 Bishop, Crim. Law (8th ed.), §§1120, 1121, 1123, 1124; 1 Wharton, Crim. Law (10th ed.), §§559, 560, 562, 563; Gillett, Crim. Law (2d ed.), §§728, 729; Pomeroy v. State (1884), 94 Ind. 96, 48. Am. Rep. 146; Gore v. State (1904), 119 Ga. 418, 46 S. E. 671, 100 Am. St. 182; Payne v. State (1899), 40 Tex. Or. 202, 49 S. W. 604, 76 Am. St. 712, and authorities cited; Commonwealth v. Burke (1870), 105 Mass. 376, 7 Am. Rep. 531; State v. Atherton (1878), 50 Iowa 189, 32 Am. Rep. 134. But even in cases of this kind, the intent to use force, if necessary, to accomplish the offense, is essential to criminality. 1 Wharton, Crim. Law (10th ed.), §§550, 561, p. 526; note to Smith v. State (1861), 80 Am. Dec. 355, 367; State v. Lung (1891), 21 Nev. 209, 28 Pac. 235, 37 Am. St. 505, and note page 511.

5. An acquiescence obtained by duress or fear of personal violence will avail nothing, the law regarding such submission as no consent at all. If the mind of the woman is overpowered by a display of physical force, through threats, express, implied, or otherwise, or she ceases resistance through fear of great harm, the consummation of unlawful intercourse by the man would be rape. 1 Wharton, Crim. Law (10th ed.), §557; 2 Bishop, Crim. Law (8th ed.), §1125; Ledley v. State (1853), 4 Ind. 580; Eberhart v. State (1893), 134 Ind. 651, and [620]*620cases cited; Hawkins v. State (1894), 136 Ind. 630; Felton v. State (1894), 139 Ind. 531; Ransbottom v. State (1896), 144 Ind. 250; Bailey v. Commonwealth (1886), 82 Va. 107, 3 Am. St. 87.

Consent is no defense when what the woman agreed to was a medical operation and not sexual intercourse; and the same rule obtains when what the woman agreed to was legitimate sexual intercourse with her husband, and not sexual intercourse with a stranger. 1 Wharton, Crim. Law (10th ed.), §559; 2 Bishop, Crim. Law (8th ed.), §1122; Reg. v. Dee (1884), 15 Cox C. C. 579; 6 Criminal Law Magazine, 220; 31 Alb. L. J., p. 43; Pomeroy v. State, supra, and authorities cited.

3. It was said in 1 Wharton, Crim.

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Bluebook (online)
81 N.E. 584, 168 Ind. 615, 1907 Ind. LEXIS 145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rahke-v-state-ind-1907.