Lockhart v. State

Citations

• 79 Fla. 824
• 85 So. 153

Syllabus

<p>1. An indictment that charges defendants with having lived and cohabited together in an open state of adultery on July 4, 1919, and on divers and many other'days within two years next preceding the date of the finding and presenting of the indictment, and that Berta Rodgers and Tine Lockhart did then and there live and cohabit together in an open state of adultery when Berta Rodgers then and there had a lawful .husband living, Berta Rodgers then being married to Jim Rodgers, and that Berta Rodgers had a husband living on the date named in the indictment, July 4, 1919, and between that date and that of filing the, indictment on the 15th day of October, 1919, is’ not fatally defective, as vague, indefinite, uncertain and insufficient.</p> <p>2. Where there is substantial competent evidence of all the facts legally essential to support the verdict, and there is nothing in the record to indicate that the jury were influenced by considerations outside the evidence, this court will not disturb the verdict.</p> <p>3. A single act of adultery unsupported by other circumstances is insufficient to support a charge of living in an open state of adultery, but where it is shown that the parties were living in the same house, that the woman cooked, washed and kept house for the man; that he introduced her to others as his wife, and that they were seen constantly together and acting generally as husband and wife, testimony of the single act was competent to establish the immorality that was necessary in connection with the other circumstances to constitute the offense.</p> <p>4. When the court in its general charge covers clearly and fully all the legal questions affecting the cause, it is not error for the court to refuse to give special instructions couched in different language embodying the principle covered by the general charge.</p>