Noble v. State
Noble v. State
Opinion of the Court
The objection to the indictment is not well taken. It is established law that the relation of step-father and step-daughter, at least within the meaning of statutes against the’ crime of incest, terminates with the death or divorce of the mother. To aver the relation of step-father and step-daughter is therefore, and necessarily, to aver the marriage of the mother to the step-father, and the subsistence of the marriage relation at the time in question. This is the legal import of the terms. They must have the same meaning in the indictment as in the statutes. No amplification, or special definition of the relation, can make it more certain, or give additional notice of the particular facts to be proven at the trial. The case is one of those where the pleader may safely and properly adopt the language of the statute describing the offense, as appears to have been done in the present instance.
It remains to inquire whether the court erred in its instructions to the jury. In that part of the charge relating to the death of the mother’s former husbands, we see no way of avoiding the conclusion that there is error. The court, in effect, charged the jury, that if either of the two former husbands of the mother was dead, or presumed to be dead, her subsequent marriage to Noble would be valid. This is undeniably bad law, and could never have been intended by the court. But it is so written in the record, and to that alone we can look.
As to the other branch of the court’s instructions, we have much more difficulty in deciding. Were it an open question in this state, whether emission is necessary to constitute the crime of rape, it is not at all unlikely that we should feel constrained to decide it in the negative. It is not, however, an open question; and it would seem only necessary, therefore, to inquire whether the statutory words
Eor the reason that the court erred in these two respects in its charge to the jury, the judgment must be reversed* and the cause remanded.
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded for further proceedings„
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Harvey Noble v. The State of Ohio
- Status
- Published