People v. Lee

Citations

• 119 Cal. 84
• 51 P. 22
• 1897 Cal. LEXIS 855

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Rape—Girl tjnber Age oe Consent—Instruction—Improper Request—Absence oe Outcry and Immediate Disclosure.—Upon the trial of a defendant charged with the crime of rape, committed upon a girl under fourteen years of age, it is proper to refuse to instruct the jury, upon request of the defendant, that the facts that the prosecutrix made no outcry and no immediate disclosure, and that there was but little indication of violence to her person, “are proper to be taken into consideration by the jury, as throwing doubt upon the assumption that the act was committed at all,” the consent of the girl being immaterial, as affecting the guilt of the defendant, and the undisputed facts being such as to show that there was no probative force in the alleged facts, and the instruction being a clear invasion of the province of the jury, and involving an assumption that certain controverted facts had been established by the evidence.</p> <p>Id.—Consummation of Chime—Conflicting Evidence—Expebt Testimony. Where the testimony of the prosecutrix and of the defendant is conflicting as to whether the crime of rape was consummated or only attempted, and the circumstances shown by the testimony of the medical experts tended to show that there was not a complete sexual act, but they are all so far consistent with the evidence of the prosecutrix that enough may have been done to constitute the crime of rape, a verdict of conviction of that crime will not be disturbed upon appeal for insufficiency of the evidence.</p>