State v. Driscoll

106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 33
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 10, 1922
DocketNo. 17036
StatusPublished

This text of 106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 33 (State v. Driscoll) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Driscoll, 106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 33 (Ohio 1922).

Opinion

Marshall, C. J.

Edward Driscoll was indicted in Crawford county upon a charge of rape, under Section 12413, General Code. The indictment alleged that the prosecuting witness Gladys Cosgrove was a female person other than the daughter or sis[34]*34ter of the accused and not under twelve years of age. The pertinent facts disclosed by the evidence were that on the night of November 27,1919, Gladys Cosgrove, aged seventeen years, went to a public taxicab station in Bucyrus, unaccompanied, to procure a taxicab to take her to her father’s residence a distance of about three quarters of a mile. The defendant Driscoll was employed by the taxicab company and started to take her to her father’s home, but instead of taking her directly to her home drove into the country and criminally assaulted her, accomplishing his purpose notwithstanding her continued resistance. The testimony shows the prosecuting witness to be a girl of frail physique, at that time about eighteen years of age, employed at a restaurant, where she worked in the evenings, and that she frequently employed a taxi of the same company to take her home at night. The testimony shows that in the struggle the buttons were torn from her clothing, her hat ruined, a fancy hair comb lost, her hair disheveled and her underwear saturated with blood. The defendant testified in his own behalf that the girl came to the taxi office and especially requested him to drive her home, protesting against another driver, and that shortly after starting he began to take liberties with her person and that she made no resistance other than to laughingly protest. If the testimony of the defendant should be believed it would clearly make out a case of the girl trying to vamp him, because he testifies that his advances were not only not resisted but that they were even encouraged throughout ; and, while he admits the sexual intercourse, his testimony if believed makes a clear case of consent. [35]*35His testimony apparently made no impression upon the jury, or the trial judge, or the court of appeals. The girl was corroborated by the testimony of her mother in all important respects, notably as to the girl telling her mother immediately on arriving home and as to her condition indicating a terrific struggle. The testimony also discloses that when arrested the following day Driscoll admitted in the presence of the prosecuting attorney and a- policeman that he had committed the crime, but made the excuse that he had been drinking. The court of common pleas rendered judgment against the accused. The court of appeals in reviewing the judgment reversed for alleged error in the charge, and particularly stated that it would refuse to disturb the judgment on the weight of the evidence. The court of appeals considered two assignments of error in the charge of the court: (a) the failure to charge that the major offense of rape includes other and lesser offenses, to-wit, assault and battery and assault; (b) the omission from the enumeration of the elements necessary to a conviction of the requisite fact that the person upon whom the rape was alleged to have been committed was a person other than the daughter or sister of the accused or female person under twelve years of age. The court of appeals refused to reverse the judgment on the ground first above mentioned for the reason that no request had been made for such an instruction, but it did reverse the judgment on the second assignment of error, notwithstanding the fact that no instruction was requested upon that point. Error has been prosecuted to this court to reverse the judgment of the court of appeals for sustaining the second assignment of error, [36]*36and this proceeding in error is resisted by counsel for the accused, it being claimed that the court of appeals was right in reversing upon the second assignment of error, and that the judgment of reversal should stand because the reversal was right, even though a wrong reason was assigned. We will first take up the second assignment of error to determine the correctness of the judgment of the court of appeals.

It cannot be doubted that a complete charge upon the trial of an indictment under Section 12413 should include the instruction that the jury should find that the subject of the rape was a female person other than the daughter or sister of the accused or a female person under twelve years of age. The indictment in this case alleged that Gladys Cosgrove was not the daughter or sister of the accused and that she was not a female person under twelve years of age. The testimony adduced by the state clearly proved that she was not either the daughter or sister of Edward Driscoll, and also that she was in her eighteenth year on the night when the offense was committed. The defense offered no evidence tending to disprove either of these facts. The court of appeals must have taken the same view of the testimony, because we find this statement in the opinion: “There is evidence tending to prove all of the material ingredients of the crime. We are cited by counsel for the accused to Howard v. State, 11 Ohio St., 328, in support of the proposition that Section 12413 includes three separate and distinct crimes: (1) rape of a daughter or sister (2) rape of a child under twelve years of age (3) rape of any other female.

[37]*37For the first two offenses the penalty is imprisonment for life, and for the third offense imprisonment for not less than three nor more than twenty years. The indictment, however, mates it very clear that the defendant was charged only with having committed the third offense above named, and that the other two offenses were by the express terms of the indictment excluded. The evidence was equally clear that neither of the first two offenses had been committed and there was evidence tending to prove all the material ingredients of the third offense, and the jury, the court of common pleas and the court of appeals so found. Upon this feature of the case the charge of the court was above criticism, except for the omission to instruct the jury that it must find that the prosecuting witness was a female person other than the daughter or sister of the accused and that she was not a female person under twelve years of age. Upon this point it is admitted that no request was made by counsel for the accused to supply the omission and it is also conceded that no testimony was tendered by the defendant tending to disprove the testimony of the state in relation thereto. The legal question is therefore presented whether such omission of the trial judge without request on the part of counsel for the accused constitutes reversible error, and whether the mere reservation of general exceptions to the charge includes “errors of law which exist in such charge” within the meaning of Section 11561, General Code. This question is not a new one, but on the contrary has been so often considered by this court that we are not justified in entering upon any extended discussion at this time, but it should be stated that the sit[38]*38uation is parallel to the situation in State v. McCoy, 88 Ohio St., 447. In that case, after reviewing the authorities, the court, at page 450, stated the true doctrine as follows: “Where the charge as given is free from prejudicial error but fails to cover all the questions involved in the case, such failure is not a ground for reversal unless it was called to the attention of the court and further instructions requested and refused, provided the jury is not misled by the charge as given.” In that case the following cases were cited with approval: Columbus Ry. Co. v. Ritter, 67 Ohio St., 53; Schryver

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 33, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-driscoll-ohio-1922.