Opinion ID: 2443929
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Submissibility of Charge of Rape

Text: The crux of defendant's attack on the submissibility of the State's case on the rape charge is directed at whether the evidence supports a finding that the carnal knowledge was by force and against the will of the prosecutrix. Generally, these issues are to be resolved by the jury except where the reviewing court can declare as a matter of law that the evidence adduced by the State was insufficient to sustain a finding of these elements of the crime. State v. Garrett, 494 S.W.2d 336, 338 (Mo.1973). In reviewing this issue of submissibility, it is the duty of the appellate court to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the State. State v. Garrett, 494 S.W.2d at 337. Defendant complains that the State's case rested almost entirely on the testimony of the prosecutrix and that the circumstances leading up to the alleged rape suggest that corroborating testimony was necessary. The basis for this argument is that there was evidence that they had been drinking and dancing together in a bar prior to the occurrence, that they had been acquainted for about two years and that she cooperated by removing her clothing prior to the intercourse. While these are circumstances the jury may weigh in determining the credibility of the prosecutrix, the rule in this state is that a conviction in cases of rape may be had upon the uncorroborated evidence of the prosecutrix. It is only in those cases where the evidence of the prosecutrix is of a contradictory nature or, when applied to the admitted facts in the case, her testimony is not convincing and leaves the mind of the court clouded with doubts, that she must be corroborated or a judgment cannot be sustained. State v. Burton, 355 Mo. 467, 196 S.W.2d 621, 622-23 (1946). The prosecutrix testified that when she got ready to leave the bar and walk home the defendant offered to walk home with her. Near her home she was pushed into an alley by defendant who then said to her, I want some. She responded, Man, you got to be kidding. Cold as it is? There was testimony in the case that the temperature that night was 24 degrees. Prosecutrix testified that she attempted to dissuade him by telling him that her house was warmer but he told her he was going to get it here in the alley, and if she didn't do it, he was going to hurt her. He kept one hand on her shoulder and the other one in his right jacket pocket. He pushed her down towards a small pile of sawdust and ordered her to pull off her coat and lie on it. She again suggested that they go up to her house, but he replied, I'm out on the street, I will do what I want to do. She protested that she didn't want to have to lie down there but he insisted. While she removed her coat, she continued begging him not to do this, but he said, I'm going to make it good for you. I know you ain't going to tell nobody. She said she wasn't going to tell anyone; that she knew he meant business. She was hoping that the police who usually patrol that alley might show up. Defendant tried to help her take her pants off. She pulled her clothes off and laid down naked from the waist down and the defendant engaged in intercourse. She admitted she did not yell or holler because there wasn't no people around there in hollering range in the project and that to yell for help in that neighborhood would be fruitless. She testified that she did not consent to the act of intercourse of her own free will but because of a fear of being hurt. She explained her invitation to defendant to go to her house by testifying that she knew that her children and her 44-year-old male cousin were there and if she could get him to go there, she could be helped. After defendant left her, she immediately ran home, where she reported what had happened to her children and her cousin, and then notified the police. The children testified that when she arrived home she was crying and looked like she had been attacked. She was upset and she had sawdust in her hair and on her clothes. After the police arrived at her home, she related what had happened and accompanied them to the alley where she said the attack occurred. Her coat and panties were recovered there. She then accompanied the police officers to the tavern from whence she had left with the defendant and identified him for the police officers as the rapist. In the light of prosecutrix' testimony, we conclude that corroboration of prosecutrix' testimony was not required. Instead, this case is controlled by that line of cases which hold that consent induced by fear is no consent and that the question of whether the prosecutrix submitted to the demands of the defendant charged with forcible rape because of fear of great bodily harm to herself in the event she physically resisted is a jury question. State v. Garrett, 494 S.W.2d at 338; State v. Gray, 423 S.W.2d 776, 780 (Mo.1968); State v. Beck, 368 S.W.2d 490, 493 (Mo.1963); State v. Schuster, 282 S.W.2d 553, 556 (Mo.1955); and State v. Boone, 519 S.W.2d 27, 29 (Mo. App.1975). We conclude that the State's evidence as hereinbefore set out made a submissible case and we rule this point against defendant.