State v. Hoaglin

223 N.W. 548, 207 Iowa 744
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 12, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 223 N.W. 548 (State v. Hoaglin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hoaglin, 223 N.W. 548, 207 Iowa 744 (iowa 1929).

Opinions

Wagner, J. —

The question of interest in this case is as to what, if any, offenses should have been submitted as included offenses within the crime charged in the indictment and under the evidence, as disclosed by the record. The in- . . ,. ... dietment is as follows:

“The grand jury of the county of Henry, †]16 name and by the authority of the state of *746 Iowa, accuses Earl Hoaglin of the crime of rape,- committed as follows: For that the said'Earl Hoaglin, on or about the Blst day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1926, in the county and state aforesaid, did carnally know and abuse a female under the age of 17 years, to wit, Ethel Coen, she being at that time less than 17 years of age, and the defendant, Earl Hoaglin, at the time being over the age of 25 years, contrary to and in violation of law.”

It is provided by Section 13920 of the Code of 1924 that the defendant may be found guilty of any offense the commission of which is necessarily included'in that with which he is charged in the indictment. It is also provided by Section 13918 of the Code that, where there is' a reasonable doubt of the degree of. the offense of which the defendant is proven to be guilty, he shall only be convicted of the lower degree. All crimes in this state are statutory. However, members of the profession frequently speak of “common-law rape” and “statutory rape.” In many instances in our criminal code, the act or acts constituting a crime are designated, and the crime named. To illustrate, Section 12910 of the Code designates the act and names the crime as murder. In Section 12979 of the Code, after defining the crime, the words used are, “shall be deemed guilty of sodomy.” In Section 12994, the acts constituting the offense are designated, and said legislative enactment provides: “ He shall be guilty of burglary.” In Section 13005, after naming the acts which constitute the offense, the statutory law provides: “He is guilty of larceny.” In Section 13038, after providing what constitutes the offense, it is further provided, “He is guilty of robbery.” Likewise in Sections 13162 and 13165, it being provided in the former section that “they áre guilty of a conspiracy, ”, and in the latter section, “He is guilty of perjury.”

Our statute does not provide in terms that the commission of certain acts shall constitute the crime of “rape.” It is true that the word “rape” appears as a heading to Chapter 566 of ^® Code. However, this caption was placed tliere ^ the editor of the Code. Section Í2966 thereunder provides:

“If any person ravish and carnally know any female of.the age of 16 years or over, by force or against her will, or if ;any *747 person under the age of 25 years carnally know and abuse any female child under the age of 16 years, or if any person over the age of 25 years carnally know and abuse any female under the age of 17 years, he shall be imprisoned- in the penitentiary,” etc.

It will be observed that the word “rape” is not used in the statute. Section 12967 provides for punishment of a person who unlawfully has “carnal knowledge of any female by administering to her any substance, or by any other means producing such stupor or such imbecility of mind or weakness of body as to prevent effectual resistance,” or who has “such carnal knowledge of an idiot or female naturally of such imbecility of mind or weakness of body as to prevent effectual resistance.” It will also be observed that the word “rape” is not used in this section. The sole remaining section of said chapter, to wit, Section 12968, provides: “If any person assault a female with intent to commit a rape [the italics are ours], he shall be imprisoned, ’ ’ etc. The question naturally arising is: Are the various acts described in Section 12966 rape, within the meaning of Section 12968 ? The common-law definition of rape is “the having of unlawful carnal knowledge by ainan of a woman [female], forcibly and against her will, or, according to the definition preferred by some authorities, it is the unlawful carnal knowledge of a female by force and without her consent.” '22 Ruling Case Law 1171. In the same volume of Ruling Case Law, at page 1172, we find the following appropriate, language:

“In England, and in practically all of the states of this country, carnal knowledge of a girl under a stated age, with or without her consent, is made a crime by statute. In England, the statutory crime is not denominated ‘rape,’ and the English judges have escaped the confusion of ideas which in this country has no doubt arisen from the fact that two essentially different crimes have been called by the same name.. In this country, however, the offense has come to be known generally as statutory rape, and is denominated rape in many states. ’ ’

It is thus manifest that, when the term “statutory rape” is used, it refers to the last two acts designated as a crime in Section 12966 hereinbefore quoted.

It will be observed that the acts mentioned in Section 12966 of the Code, — to wit, “if any person ravish or carnally know *748 any female * * * by force or against her will, ’ ’ — constituted rape under the common law, although not denominated rape in the statute. The remainder of the section provides the same punishment for the carnal knowledge and abuse of any female child under 16 years of age, and for the carnal knowledge and abuse of any female under 17 years of age when the perpetrator is over 25 years of age. The question is: Are the various acts described in Section 12966 rape, within the meaning of Section 12968? If not, then we must go to the common law for the definition of rape, in the application of Section 12968. If we do so, then there could be no assault with intent to commit the two latter offenses described, in Section 12966, as they do not constitute rape at common law. In that event, there could be no assault with intent to commit rape, except for the first offense designated in Section 12966. On the other hand, if we construe the various acts mentioned in Section 12966 as constituting rape, then there can be an assault with intent to commit the two latter acts mentioned in said section. We are disposed to adopt this latter construction. Therefore,. the charge of “rape” based on any portion of Section 12966 must necessarily include assault with intent to commit rape. Assault with intent to commit rape is made up of two elements: one is assault; the other is intent. It necessarily follows that, if a charge of rape includes assault with intent to commit rape, it must include an assault. It would be an anomalous proposition to say that the crime of rape includes the crime of assault with intent to commit rape, and does not include a simple assault; for the assault is the basis of the whole charge, in assault with intent to commit rape.

A charge of rape also includes assault and battery; for a battery is only the completion of an assault. The very first act in the perpetration of the crime of rape is an assault. If, at the time of making the assault, the perpetrator has the intent to commit the crime of rape, he is instantaneously guilty of assault with intent to commit rape. If he completes the act by penetration of the body of the female, and she be under the prohibited age, he is then guilty of. the crime of rape.

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Bluebook (online)
223 N.W. 548, 207 Iowa 744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hoaglin-iowa-1929.