State v. Elswood

Citations

• 15 Wash. 453
• 46 P. 727
• 1896 Wash. LEXIS 217

Syllabus

<p>INFORMATION — DUPLICITY — SPECIAL COUNSEL IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTION— DISCRETION OF COURT — LEADING QUESTIONS — SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE.</p> <p>An information against defendant for the crime of rape committed upon a female child under the age of twelve years, sufficiently charges one crime, and not two, when it alleges that defendant “feloniously did make an assault, and her the said [child] then and there feloniously did ravish, carnally know and abuse,” etc., since the words charging assault must be construed as charging same only as included in the crime of rape.</p> <p>It is within the discretion of the court to allow special counsel to aid the prosecuting attorney in the prosecution of a case, and such discretion will only be interfered with upon a showing of an abuse thereof.</p> <p>When there is evidence tending to show every fact necessary to establish the guilt of defendant, the court is not warranted in taking the case from the jury.</p> <p>The action of the court in allowing leading questions is a matter so largely within its discretion as to call for the interference of the appellate court only in extreme cases.</p> <p>The supreme court will not set aside a verdict in a criminal case, when there is testimony tending to show every necessary fact, and when the court which tried the cause has refused to interfere with the verdict.</p>