Court Opinion

ID: 9764586
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:28:08.899503+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:58.575076
License: Public Domain

on appellant’s motion for rehearing.
BEAUCHAMP, Judge.
Appellant bases his claim for rehearing in this case on the *367statement that this court erred in holding that the testimony of appellant did not raise the issue of previous chastity. The evidence of appellant himself together with that of the physician, as detailed in the original opinion, is relied upon as a basis for the claim that the court should have given a requested charge on the effect of unchastity of a female in consent cases where the prosecutrix is between fifteen and eighteen years of age. It is said in the brief: “Perhaps, their testimony considered separately would not raise the issue, but their testimony considered together certainly raised a reasonable doubt in the jurors’ minds.”
It will not be necessary to review the testimony of the physician. It is very plain and clear that he gave no testimony in the least comforting to the position taken by appellant. He testified that there had been recent penetration. Beyond that he would not say. His failure to be able to reach any other conclusion is due to the fact that there was no evidence, either for or against the contention of unchastity, available to him based on the physical examination. He could not say yes or no.
We agree that the testimony of appellant without being considered with that of the physician is not sufficient to raise an issue for the jury. His statement that the prosecutrix did consent classified it as a consent case in which unchastity would be a defense, if proven. What he said about her conduct at the time was only that he judged from her motions that she knew what she was doing. Possibly she did, but that is no proof that she gained this knowledge from previous experience. It has no probative force and can only raise a suspicion in a receptive mind. It is worthy of no consideration before an unsuspecting jury as evidence.
In discussing the case of Wright v. State, 108 Tex. Cr. R. 118, 1 S.W. 2d 1095, reliance is had on the statement that this issue of fact may be raised “* * * by proof of circumstances as well as by direct evidence.” This will be conceded. It must, however, be a circumstance having some probative force as evidence. It is further stated in that opinion: “A plea of not guilty puts her lack of chastity in issue.” A plea of not guilty puts every possible defense in issue, but it does not furnish any evidence in behalf of any defensive matter. Certainly it could have no force in support of an affirmative defense such as that relied upon in this case.
*368Appellant’s second claim for rehearing takes issue with the court’s opinion on the question of the right under the pleading to have considered the evidence of misconduct of the jury in receiving other testimony after retiring to consider of their verdict. The motion then says: “In connection with this point, we most earnestly insist that this court has gone entirely too far recently in their holdings as to motions for new trial where jury misconduct is involved.” This is followed by a discussion of the statute on the subject and the holdings of this court in the recent case of Vowell v. State, 156 Tex. Cr. R. 493, 244 S.W. 2d 214, which followed and discussed the case of Vyvial v. State, 111 Tex. Cr. R. 111, 10 S.W. 2d 83.
The question thus raised appeals especially to the writer. A discussion of the matter would be made if the facts of the instant case justified it. The statement relied upon was made by the foreman of the jury and is found in the motion for a new trial (Transcript, p. 20) in substance, as follows: “We must stop this sort of thing around here, there is too much of it going on and the best way to do it is- to send Raul to the penitentiary. This is just a case involving a Mexican but if we don’t stop it, the next case might happen to a white girl.” This was in connection with the consideration of his application for a suspended sentence. It came after he was found guilty.
We cannot give this the dignity of evidence in the case before the jury. Jurors are men of intelligence. We cannot rob them of the power to reason. They have no discretion authorizing them to find one guilty without evidence to support their verdict. It is not within their discretion to find a man innocent when the evidence proves without question that he is guilty. On the matter of suspended sentence, however, it is a matter within their discretion when the question is legally before them. They have a right to consider whether or not they, as jurors, can afford to grant the benefits of the suspended sentence to any defendant in any case where it is submitted to them in the court’s charge. The quoted language is nothing more than a statement of matters already in the minds of the jurors, as a matter of common knowledge, according to the viewpoint of the foreman, and it seems to have been accepted unanimously. It brings no new fact to them and violates no rule, as we see it.
Appellant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.