Case Name: John Smelser et al. v. The State
Court: Supreme Court of Texas
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1868-01
Citations: 31 Tex. 95
Docket Number: 
Parties: John Smelser et al. v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Reports
Volume: 31
Pages: 95–96

Head Matter:
John Smelser et al. v. The State.
Where the verdict was wholly unsupported by evidence a new trial ought to have been granted.
Appeal from Brazoria. The case was tried before Hon. Benjamin Shropshire, one of the district judges.
The defendant, John Smelaer, a white man, and Mary Ann Eraulis, a freed woman, were indicted under article 392 of the Criminal Code [Paschal’s Dig., Art. 2022] for living together in a state of fornication. The defendants pleaded not guilty, but they were convicted, and each fined $100. A motion for a new trial was overruled, and the case turned upon the sufficiency of the pfoof to convict. There was proof that the parties lived together in the same house, but occupied different rooms. There was no other proof to sustain the verdict, except that the woman had been the other defendant’s slave, was nearly white, and wore short hair.
Ho brief for the appellants has been furnished to the Reporter.
M B. Turner, Attorney General, for the state,
did not believe this conviction supported by any testimony.

Opinion:
Lindsay, J.
—The facts exhibited in the record of this case do not warrant the verdict of the jury. The judgment therefore is
Reversed.