People v. Verdegreen

Citations

• 106 Cal. 211
• 39 P. 607
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 595

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Assault with Intent to Commit Rape—Consent op Female under Fourteen.—Under the law of this state making a female under the age of fourteen years incapable of consenting to the offense of rape, a girl under that age is incapable in law of consenting to an assault in connection with the intent to commit the offense, and it is immaterial whether the girl in fact consented or resisted.</p> <p>Id.—Object of Statute.—The purpose of the statute is the protection of society by protecting from violation the virtue of young and unsophiscated girls; and although an assault ordinarily implies force by the assailant, and resistance by the one assaulted, and one is not, in legal contemplation, injured by the act consented to, these principles have no application to a case where under the law there can be no consent, and the female is to be regarded as resisting, no matter what the state of her mind may be at the time; but in such case the law resists for her.</p>