Court Opinion

ID: 9679050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:39:22.010098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:09.893589
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(dissenting).
The majority reverses this conviction on the grounds that no proof of a threat was made. The prosecutrix was deaf. Appellant and another entered her trailer house and both of them raped her. Appellant made her commit oral sodomy upon him. During the incident the rapists exhibited a knife. She testified as follows:
“Q. [by the prosecutor]: At the time while this was happening did one of them get a knife that belonged to your husband?
“A. [by the prosecutrix, with the aid of an interpreter]: She said yes.
“Q. Did he threaten you with it?
“A. No. She said no.
“Q. What did he do with it?
“A. The way I understand it the man said almost and she said no.
“Q. Did one of them tell you that if you told they would come back and kill you?
“A. Yes.”
For a woman who could not hear, this is sufficient proof of a threat. It is the belief of the writer that the exhibition of a knife while “this was happening” is a threat. Does the majority require that a written communication be shown to a deaf woman to constitute a threat under the statute?
The judgment should be affirmed.
GUPTON, J., joins in this dissent.