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1 Mass. 7

Commonwealth v. Catlin

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided September 15, 1804

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1804-09-15

<p>On an indictment for open gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, evidence of lewdness or such behavior in secret will not support the indictment.</p>

Decided 1804-09-15

¶1The Court (Strong Sedgwick, Sewall, and Thatcher, justices) were unanimously of opinion, and Strong, J., who charged the jury, stated it as the unanimous opinion of the Court, that although it might be true that the facts proved amounted to an offence, yet that they did not prove the offence charged in the indictment; that the offence charged is open gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, and nothing more: admitting every thing which has been testified to be true, there is certainly nothing more proved than secret or private lewdness and lascivious behavior, which cannot in any degree support the charge in the indictment.

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