Court Opinion

ID: 9824757
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 11:18:34.328953+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:02.273122
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
In the original opinion we held refused charge 4 to be invasive of the province of the jury, on the theory that there was evidence sufficient upon which the jury might have concluded that an act of sexual intercourse occurred between the parties, in a room adjacent to the one in which the first and second acts occurred. In this we are now convinced that this court was in error, for the reasons following:
The state by its testimony had fixed the first act of intercourse in a bed where two girls were sleeping, one of whom was Margaret Coker. Each act of carnal knowledge of a girl over 12 and under 16 years of age is a separate and distinct crime. The testimony of the state’s witnesses as to this was an election on the'' part of the state to proceed with the .prosecution for that act committed in the bed with Margaret Coker, and by appropriate action by defendant the state must be held to the election made. The defendant sought to cqnfine the prosecution to one act by requesting charge 4, which was refused. This was error. Barefield v. State, 14 Ala. App. 638, 72 So. 293; Herbert v. State, 201 Ala. 480, 78 So. 386; Davis v. State, 20 Ala. App. 463, 103 So. 73; Thomas v. State, 20 Ala. App. 128, 101 So. 93.
The court in its oral charge did not specifically confine the right to a conviction to the room in which the first act of intercourse is alleged to have taken place, and hence we cannot say that the refused charge was covered by the court’s oral charge. The application is granted. The judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded.
Reversed and remanded.