Commonwealth v. Emery

Citations

• 51 Pa. Super. 55
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 177

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Statutory rape — Age of defendant — Evidence.</p> <p>1. A conviction for statutory rape will not be reversed because the record does not affirmatively show that the defendant was over sixteen years of age, where it appears that the defendant went on the stand as a witness in his own behalf; that he testified that he was in the coal and ice business and employed an assistant, was married and had a wife and five children, and that he was referred to by his counsel as a married man, and in course of the trial was frequently called a man.</p> <p>Criminal law — Statutory rape — Repute of prosecutrix — Character of prosecutrix — Charge of court.</p> <p>2. On the trial of an indictment for statutory rape the trial judge commits reversible error, if in charging on the question of the “good repute” of the prosecutrix, he gives to the jury the understanding that the question for them to determine was not how she was esteemed by the public, but what her real character was. The defendant in such a case is not required to show that the prosecutrix was'immoral; but that in the community in which she lived her reputation for chastity was bad.</p>