Snyder v. State
Snyder v. State
Opinion of the Court
Christian Snyder was indicted at the September term of the common pleas court of Stark county in the year 1912 for the crime of rape with consent, the indictment, omitting its formal parts, reading as follows: “That Christian ' Snyder, late of said county on or about the 4th day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ten, at the c.ounty of Stark, aforesaid, said Christian Snyder being then and there a male person of the age of eighteen years and upward, did then and there unlawfully and knowingly carnally know and abuse one R. P., with
He was tried on this indictment at the January term of common pleas court of Stark county of the year 1913. The judge of the court of common pleas, among other things, charged the jury in substance that the indictment included the crime of rape with consent, the crime of assault and battery and the crime of assault. The jury returned a verdict as follows: “We, the jury impaneled and sworn to well and truly try and true deliverance make between the state of Ohio and the prisoner at bar, Christian Snyder, do find the defendant not guilty of carnally knowing and abusing R. P. with her consent as he stands charged in the indictment, and not guilty of assault and battery, but we do find the defendant guilty of assault as he stands charged in the indictment.”
The defendant did not file a motion for a new trial, but filed a motion asking the court to discharge the defendant on a number of grounds, all based upon the contention, however, that the crime of assault is not contained within said indictment. The motion was overruled by the court of common pleas, error was prosecuted to the court of appeals of Stark county and the holding of the common pleas court was affirmed.
The manner of presentation of the question the court is called upon to determine does not bring
In the case of The State v. Carl, 71 Ohio St., 259, this court has held that upon trial of a defendant charged with having carhal knowledge of a female under sixteen years of age with her consent, evidence showing that the act was committed
We have no inclination to extend in the least the application of the decision in the case of Smith v. The State, 12 Ohio St., 466. We are rather in accord with the rule adopted in many states and applied in The State v. Carl, supra, and which has in several jurisdictions been so extended as to hold that a female under the age of consent, being in
Rape with consent is constituted of the same elements as rape without consent, and one of the elements of rape is assault, and if under such a charge an assault be proved, but not the rape, the defendant may be convicted of assault. It is to be observed that the charge made by this indictment is that the defendant “did carnally know and abuse.” The latter term is defined to mean “an injury to the genital organs in an attempt at carnal knowledge, falling short of actual penetration.”
Upon the' sole question of law presented, our conclusion is that upon trial on an indictment charging that the defendant, being a male person of the age of eighteen years, carnally knew and abused a female under sixteen years of age with her consent, an instruction by the court that the indictment includes the offense of assault is not erroneous, and that, where the evidence warrants, a conviction of assault in such case should be sustained.
The judgment of the court of appeals is, therefore, affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.