Signs v. State

1926 OK CR 395, 250 P. 938, 35 Okla. Crim. 340, 1926 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 392
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 27, 1926
DocketNo. A-6210.
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 1926 OK CR 395 (Signs v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Signs v. State, 1926 OK CR 395, 250 P. 938, 35 Okla. Crim. 340, 1926 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 392 (Okla. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

EDWARDS, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court *341 of Woods county on a charge of incest and sentenced to serve a term of eight years in the state penitentiary.

The record discloses that defendant, a married man, lived at a section house on the branch line of the Santa Fe railroad near Fair Valley, in Woods county, and worked as a section hand. His wife was an inmate of an insane asylum; the prosecuting witness was his daughter who, at the time, was of the age of 13 years. The charge is based on section 1866, Comp. Stat. 1921, which reads:

“Persons who, being within the degrees of consanguinity within which. marriages are by the laws of the state declared incestuous and void, intermarry with each other, or commit adultery or fornication with each other, are punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding ten years.”

The defendant being without means, the court appointed counsel. The case was called for trial on October 23, at which time counsel filed an affidavit setting out that he believed defendant insane and not in a mental condition to make defense. The court, thereupon called a, jury for a trial on the sanity of defendant, under the provisions of sections 2866, 2867, 2868, 2871, and 2872, Comp. Stat. 1921. This jury was unable to reach a verdict and was discharged on October 24. By agreement of counsel, the case was continued until February 8, when the case was again called for trial; no further suggestion of insanity was made; the tria] resulted in verdict and sentence, as stated. After verdict, defendant filed a motion for a new trial on the grounds that the court erred in its decision of questions of law arising at the trial; that the verdict is contrary to the law and is not supported by the evidence.

Several assignments of error are presented in the *342 briefs which are not properly preserved for consideration for the reason that they were not set np in the motion for a new trial. None of these assignments contain any fundamental error and are waived by failure to present to the trial court in the motion for new trial. The prosecuting witness testified to two acts of intercourse accomplished by defendant by persuasion or commands. At the conclusion of the state’s testimony, defendant moved for the court to require the state to elect upon which act it would rely, which was overruled. This was error, but the county attorney, on his own volition, elected one of the acts and so stated in open court, and the instructions of the court were then directed to this particular act. This was sufficient under the rule announced in the cases of Smith v. State, 20 Okla. Cr. 123, 201 P. 663, Pope v. State, 24 Okla. Cr. 213, 217 P. 498, and Cooper v. State, 31 Okla. Cr. 165, 237 P. 867.

Under the contention that the evidence is not sufficient to support the verdict, it is argued that there was no proof of penetration sufficient to constitute incest. It is the contention that there must be a complete act of coition to prove incest. The evidence of two physicians who examined the genital organs of the prosecutrix was that the hymen had not been ruptured, and there had been no laceration, and that, while a rupture of the hymen was not a determining factor, yet, owing to the age and development of prosecutrix, if she had had intercourse it must necessarily have been in the external part of the genital organ. The testimony of the prosecutrix was positive; in addition, there was evidence of two or more persons to whom the defendant admitted his guilt. This evidence was for the jury and, upon this point, is sufficient to sustain the verdict. One purpose of the statute is to promote domestic peace and social purity, so, by the great *343 weight of authority, proof of penetration without proof of emission is sufficient. 14 R. C. L. p. 31, § 2; State v. Judd, 132 Iowa, 296, 109 N. W. 892, 11 Ann. Cas. 91; State v. Hamey, 168 Mo. 167, 67 S. W. 620, 57 L. R. A. 846; 31 C. J. 375, 376.

Counsel for defendant- contend that, in order to make proof of the statutory crime of incest, the assent of both parties must be proved. That where one of the parties, as here, is incapable by reason of nonage of giving consent, the crime is rape and not incest. There are some authorities that support this view. De Groat v. People, 39 Mich. 124; State v. Jarvis, 20 Or. 437, 26 P. 302, 23 Am. St. Rep. 141; State v. Thomas, 53 Iowa, 214, 4 N. W. 908. The latter case apparently has been overruled by later decisions of that state. The general rule, however, is to the contrary.

14 R. C. L. p. 34, § 5, reads:

“In some jurisdictions, it seems that the crime is constituted of a joint act to which both participants must consent, and that evidence of violence committed on the prosecutrix makes the offense rape and not incest.' But the better view is that every element of the crime of incest may exist as against one party to the act, though he did it by force or fraud, or otherwise, without the consent of the other party.”

See, also, 31 C. J. p. 378, § 15; State v. Chambers, 87 Iowa, 1, 53 N. W. 1090, 43 Am. St. Rep. 349; State v. Hurd, 101 Iowa, 391, 70 N. W. 613; State v. Judd, supra; State v. Nugent, 20 Wash. 522, 56 P. 25, 72 Am. St. Rep. 133; Bishop on Statutory Crimes (3d Ed.) § 660.

Section 1866 of our statute, supra, defines incest under three different conditions: First. Where parties within the prohibited degree of kinship intermarry. Second. Where they commit adultery with each other. Third. Where they commit fornification with each other. *344 The first does not apply, and, since our statute defines fornication as sexual intercourse between two persons, neither of whom is married, the third condition does not apply. The incest charged, if proved, must fall under the second condition; i. e., where the parties commit adultery with each other.

Our statute, section 1852, defines adultery as:

“Adultery is the unlawful voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex.

* *

Adultery, under the definition here given, is an act of sexual intercourse by a married person with one of the opposite sex, not intercourse between persons of the opposite sex, one of whom, at least, is married. Adultery, as thus defined, does not require that the act shall be voluntary as to each of the parties. This court, in the case of Woody v. State, 10 Okla. Cr. 322, 136 P. 430, 49 L. R. A. (N. S.) 479, in discussing the crime of adultery, said:

“Again, it is true that to constitute adultery there must be a joint physical act, but it is not necessary that there should be a joint criminal intent. The bodies must concur in the act, but the minds may not; one may be guilty and the other innocent. A few illustrations will demonstrate this conclusively; namely, if A., being a married man, should have sexual intercourse with B., a single woman, who was so drunk or demented as to be unable to give her consent, such woman could not be convicted, but A. may be prosecuted and convicted either for adultery or rape. Or.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1926 OK CR 395, 250 P. 938, 35 Okla. Crim. 340, 1926 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/signs-v-state-oklacrimapp-1926.