People v. Currie

CHIPMAN, P. J.

Defendant was tried upon an information for the rape of a female under the age of consent, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for the term of eighteen years. He appeals from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The conviction rests upon the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecutrix, whose narrative of the facts is by no means conclusive but not such as to justify its entire rejection as “inherently improbable,” as it is characterized by defendant.. She testified that the crime was committed the 24th or 25th of February, 1908. She testified in chief that she was afterward examined by Dr. Rutledge and that he found her to be pregnant. She was asked on cross-examination to whom she first told of the assault, and replied: “Never told anyone; the doctor came and found out for himself. Q. Was that the first time Currie had ever taken any liberties with you? A. Yes, sir.” She testified that she gave birth to a child on October 31, 1908, at a hospital in Sacramento, and the attending physician testified to the date and also that the child “was full nine months old,” and that had it not been nine months old there would “have been peculiarities about the child or mother to show that it was born sooner than provided for.” On cross-examination of the prosecutrix, defendant endeavored to show that, prior to the alleged relation with defendant, she had had illicit relations with persons other than defendant, and particularly with a young man who was named, and she was also asked the direct questions: “Had you had sexual intercourse with any other person except Currie up to that time ? Did you ever have any opportunity prior to the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day of February, 1908, to become pregnant?” Other questions were asked along this line, to all of which the objection of the district attorney was sustained. Counsel for defendant stated to the court that the purpose was to show that, according to the laws of nature, “it was utterly impossible that she could have

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had sexual intercourse on the date she gave”; also, “to show that the pregnant condition to which she referred in her direct testimony must have been due to somebody else besides this defendant.” The trial court resolutely refused the testimony for these or any purposes.