Moore v. State

Citations

• 102 Miss. 148
• 59 So. 3

Syllabus

<p>1. Rape. Assault with intent. Indictment. Witnesses. Evidence. Sear-say. Demurrer.</p> <p>A demurrer should not be sustained to an indictment which charges that defendant “did unlawfully and feloniously make an assault on E, a female, with the unlawful and felonious intent then and there her the said E, to unlawfully and feloniously ravish and carnally know, forcibly and against her will” since such indictment at least charges an assault with the intent to commit a felony to wit, rape, which,' under the common law was a misdemeanor.</p> <p>2. Witnesses. Evidence. Impeachment.</p> <p>Where the wife of a defendant on trial for an assault with intent to commit rape, denied on cross-examination by the district attorney that her husband had agreed to pay money to the father of the girl assaulted, if he would withdraw the charge, it was error to allow the state to introduce a letter written by tbe wife to that effect, she stating that tbe letter was written without her husband’s knowledge, since all of such proposed compromise was entirely collateral to the issue and led the jury to believe that the defendant tacitly confessed his guilt by entering into such an agreement.</p> <p>3. Criminal Law. Evidence. Hearsay.</p> <p>It is not permissible to allow a state witness to corroborate her testimony by stating that she had previously told the same story.</p>