Hunt v. State
Hunt v. State
Opinion of the Court
The defendant was charged with the abandonment of his minor illegitimate child. The jury found him guilty and he filed a motion for a new trial on the general grounds and one special ground which was denied, and the exception here is to that judgment.
1. In the prosecution of one charged with abandonment of an illegitimate child under the provision of Code § 74-9902, as amended by the act approved March 17, 1956 (Ga. L. 1956, p. 800), one of the issues is paternity. It is competent as to this issue for the mother to exhibit the child to the jury. Sims v. State, 16 Ga. App. 211 (2) (84 S. E. 976); Posey v. State, 46 Ga. App. 290, 293 (167 S. E. 340). Accordingly, in this case the first special ground of the motion for a new trial complaining of the action of the trial judge in permitting the mother to exhibit the child to the jury is without merit.
2. Under the general grounds the defendant contends that he cannot be guilty of abandonment of an illegitimate minor child unless it be shown that he has lived with the mother, and he further contends that he cannot be convicted under such circumstances until the paternity of the child shall be established by his trial and conviction of the offense of bastardy under the provisions of Code § 74-9901. Both of these contentions are without merit. While under the provisions of
Judgment affirmed.
070rehearing
On Motion for Rehearing.
On motion to rehear the counsel for the plaintiff in error complains that this court has not fully set forth his contentions; that it is his position that the defendant could not be guilty of abandonment of an illegitimate child within the purview of Code § 74-9902 as amended because, under the evidence in this case, the defendant had never lived with the prosecutrix or the child or supported either of them, there was no evidence as to when the child was conceived, a child must be conceived before it can be abandoned, and there is no evidence in the case at bar “as to whether or not child 'conceived,' before or after, the alleged abandonment.'’'
This child was bom on August 4, 1959. The defendant was charged with the offense of abandonment on September 14, 1959, at which time the child was in life. The defendant stated that he “quit going with” the mother in May, 1959, before the child was 'bom. In the Bailey case, at the time the illegitimate child was born it was not a crime to abandon and fail to support such illegitimate child, but when the law became effective thereafter
Rehearing denied.
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