Case ID: ohio-law-abs_3/html/0309-03.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "SULLIVAN, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

No. 468
    BACON et v. STATE
    Ohio Appeals, 8th Dist., Cuyahoga Co.
    Nos. 5784, 5785.
    Decided Feb. 23, 1925.
    551. FORNICATION—In order to convict under, single act will not suffice.. State of, must imply co-habitation.
   SULLIVAN, J.

Madeline Bacon and Edward Stanley were convicted on charges of fornication and adultery; under 13024 GC., the action against each being separate and distinct. Error was prosecuted and the parties contended that the judgment of the Cleveland Municipal Court was clearly against the weight of the evidence. The cause below proceeded on the theory that one act was sufficient to support a conviction for living or co-habitating in a state of fornication and adultery. The Court of Appeals held:

Attorneys—J. L. Lind for Bacon, et; J. F. Smith for City; all of Cleveland.

1. It must be shown that there was more than a single act, and that there must be shown the parties were living in such a state as to imply co-habitation.

2. This is enough evidence to create a hypothesis of innocence to render it impossible to allow a conviction to stand under the crimianal law while the record discloses evidence that warrants a reasonable doubt. Judgment of Municipal Court reversed.