Court Opinion

ID: 9673742
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:17:27.514166+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:23.719500
License: Public Domain

GRAVES, Judge, (Dissenting).
I am of the opinion that the testimony herein is sufficient *226to uphold the verdict of the jury and will give my reasons therefor.
It is shown by the facts that the 23-year old prosecutrix, on the same night of the alleged assault, went to a neighbor’s house and told her what had happened; that she then went to the house of Jacob Green, one of the school trustees; and the next morning she went to the doctor and was examined by him.
The doctor testified that he examined this woman on February 11, 1949, and she complained of being raped; that he found a small laceration or tear in the lining of the vagina; that about one and one-half inch into the vagina there was a small hematoma or blood vessel in the vaginal wall on the right side. “As to the cause of that, it looked like there was a penetration of some object or some part of the anatomy into that organ. When I saw her, her pulse was 96; her blood pressure was 130 over 80, and she was in a more or less nervous state. * * * My profession (al) opinion was it was a penis inserted into the vagina (that) caused the laceration, and she was torn. That professional opinion is based on history and what I have found from physical examination. The same bruises could not have been made with the hand. They couldn’t be made with the hand; the hematoma was about the size of a good-size marble. If some other object was inserted with the same force, those same bruises could be made. Those bruises were fairly new, because there was blood still coming from the laceration; they were new. The injury had occurred within the last eighteen hours.”
Cora Bell Carruthers testified that sometime after midnight the prosecutrix came to her house and told her the story of being-raped. She was crying and carrying on, nervous and excited. Cora’s husband was one of the trustees. The prosecutrix was on the way to see another trustee, Jacob Green. This witness was a cousin to appellant’s wife.
Again, when talking to Sheriff - Burttschell, the appellant told him that he had never touched the prosecutrix, and that he did not stop on the way home. When on the stand appellant said that the prosecutrix willingly entered into the matter with him but became angry when he offered to pay her $5.00, she claiming $9.00 therefor, which was the amount owed to appellant’s wife for room rent.
If the prosecutrix willingly entered into this agreement, we can see no reason for an outcry, for her story to Cora Bell, for her visit to the school trustees, for her trip to the doctor, and *227for the lacerations and blood in her vagina, she being a married woman, nor for the patent lie of appellant when he told the sheriff that he had never touched her.
The prosecutrix was 23 years old, weighed 90 pounds, and was five feet tall. Her husband was in the Army, and she had borne two children, one of them having died. Appellant was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 174 pounds.
I think that while she did not forfeit her life in this resistance, taking into consideration the relative strength of the parties and other circumstances of the case, yet the matter of resistance was righfully presented to the jury and their verdict thereon should not be disturbed.
This prosecutrix made out a clear case of rape, and under a long line of decisions of this court, the jury had the responsibility of either believing same or discarding her story. This jury saw the witnesses, observed their demeanor while on the stand, and returned their verdict. I think they were correct in finding appellant’s guilt.
I therefore respectfully dissent.