State v. Harness

76 P. 788, 10 Idaho 18, 1904 Ida. LEXIS 2
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMay 17, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 76 P. 788 (State v. Harness) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Harness, 76 P. 788, 10 Idaho 18, 1904 Ida. LEXIS 2 (Idaho 1904).

Opinion

STOCKSLAGER, J. —

This is an appeal from the district court of Nez Perce county. The county attorney filed an information in said court charging the defendant with the crime of rape, to wit: “On the twelfth day of February, 1903, at the county of Nez Perce, in the state of Idaho, the aforesaid Eavid Harness then and there being committed the crime of rape by then and there feloniously, with force and violence making an assault upon one Rosa Harness, who was not then and there the wife of the said David Harness, and did then and there feloniously ravish and carnally know and accomplish with her, the said Rosa Harness, an act of sexual intercourse by force, violence, and against her will and resistance, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided.”

The defendant was tried upon this charge and on the seventh day of November, 1903, found guilty of the crime of rape. On the seventeenth day of November he was sentenced to a term of fourteen years in the state penitentiary. On the twenty-seventh day of February, 1904, an order was made and entered thereafter by the court, overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial. On the second day of March, 1904, defendant perfected his appeal from the judgment; also from the order overruling the motion for a new trial.

[22]*22. Defendant assigns thirty-six errors occurring on the trial and in the order overruling his motion for new trial. Counsel for appellant in his brief discusses assignments 3, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 together as one assignment, stating they relate to the same thing and are substantially the same. It is disclosed by the record that William Harness, brother of the defendant, was living with his wife, Eosa Harness, the woman upon whom the alleged assault and offense of rape was committed, in Nez Perce county. It is also shown that Anna TJhri and Frank Uhri, brother and sister of Eosa Harness, made their home with their sister and husband. Prior to moving to the William Harness homestead they had Eved upon the homestead of defendant adjoining the homestead of William. Friendly relations had existed between Anna Uhri and defendant, and they were engaged to be mar'ried. This engagement seems to have been terminated in May -or June, 1902. Defendant and Frank TJhri had been on friendly terms until about the time last indicated. It is sliown that the house of William Harness contained two rooms, one above and one below, and that there was a bed in each room. Anna Uhri testified that her sister and husband occupied the lower room and that she occupied the upper room; also her brother Frank slept upstairs.

Counsel for appellant offered to show by Nancy Harness, mother of defendant and William Harness, that about the time the engagement was terminated between defendant and Anna TJhri, that she went to the upstairs room of her son William and found Anna Uhri and her brother Frank in bed together, and she immediately reported her discovery to defendant, who went upstairs and threw Frank out of bed, upbraiding him for his conduct. That Frank came downstairs and was sullen and angry about his treatment from defendant, and that thereafter the relations between Frank Uhri and defendant were unfriendly. Counsel offered to prove the same state of facts by the younger brother, Ed. Harness, who it is shown was present at the time above indicated. Before offering to prove the above state of facts, counsel for appellant stated to the court that the theory of the defense was that there was a conspiracy on [23]*23the part of Frank Uhri, Anna Uhri and Eosa Harness to charge defendant with the crime of rape and send him to the penitentiary. Defendant did not deny that he had been nndnly intimate with Eosa Harness on two occasions, but said there was no force or violence nsed, and that the act of sexual intercourse was entirely voluntary on her part.

Under this statement of facts, should the court have permitted the witnesses to testify as to the past conduct of Anna Uhri and Frank Uhri?

Our attention is called to a recent decision of the supreme court of Kansas. (State v. Abbott, 65 Kan. 139, 69 Pac. 160.) “John Abbott was prosecuted upon the charge of rape committed on the person of Desdemonia Horrolson, a girl under eighteen years of age, and he was convicted of an attempt to commit that offense. Mrs. Sadie Stutzman was the mother of the girl and the prosecuting witness. It is claimed that the defendant and Mrs. Stutzman had been unduly intimate for several months prior to the commission of the alleged offense, and that their illicit relations had been brought to the knowledge of her husband; that Mts. Stutzman met the defendant in the woods near her house in the absence of her husband and demanded money from the defendant, which was not furnished; and that then she began the prosecution against the defendant for the offense against her daughter. She claims to have known of the alleged offense within a few hours after its commission, and it is said she made no complaint for more than .a month, nor until the demand for money was refused. It is claimed by defendant that the prosecution was malicious. - . . . After she had testified in behalf of the state, she was .asked on cross-examination if it was not a fact that from October of the previous year until a few days before demanding the money from the defendant, she had met him in the timber near the house and had illicit relations with him; but the court, on objection of the county attorney, excluded the testimony. .... It was competent for the defendant to cross-examine the witness as to her antecedents, character and past conduct, .and thus impair her credibility. This line of inquiry became important because of the contention that the prosecution was [24]*24prompted by the malice of this witness resulting from a failure to extort money, and some of the circumstances surrounding the ease seem to justify a full cross-examination as to her past conduct and character.”

The same court, in State v. Greenburg, 54 Kan. 161, 53 Pac. 61, lays down the rule in the syllabus as follows: “For the purpose of proving the character and credit of a witness, he may be cross-examined as to specific facts tending to disgrace or degrade him, although collateral to the main issue, and touching on matters of record. Such an inquiry is only allowed for the purpose of honestly discrediting the witness, and there is reason to believe that it will tend to the ends of justice.” In support of this rule this case cites State v. Pfefferle, 36 Kan. 90, 12 Pac. 406; State v. Probasco, 46 Kan. 310, 26 Pac. 749; State v. Wells, 54 Kan. 161, 37 Pac. 1005; State v. Park, 57 Kan. 431, 46 Pac. 713; Hanoff v. State, 37 Ohio St. 178, 41 Am. Rep. 496; Brandon v. People, 42 N. Y. 265.

The attorney general insists that the witness, Anna Uhri,. did not come within the rule laid down in the cases above referred to, and in support of his contention cites sections 6082 and 6083, Revised Statutes of Idaho; also State v. Anthony, 6 Idaho, 383, 55 Pac. 884.

Section 6082 says: “A witness may be impeached by the party against whom he was called, by contradictory evidence,. or by evidence that his. general reputation for truth, honesty or integrity is bad, but not by evidence of particular wrongful acts, except that it may be shown by the examination of the witness, or the record of the judgment, that he had been convicted of a felony.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 P. 788, 10 Idaho 18, 1904 Ida. LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-harness-idaho-1904.