134 Mass. 221
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided January 15, 1883
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1883-01-15
Indictment for an assault upon a female child under the age of ten years, with intent to carnally know and abuse her.
Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Attempt”
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1883-01-15
Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently February 1983
5 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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¶1The defendant, having assaulted the child with the intent to carnally know and abuse her, was properly convicted, although in his assault he threw her into such a position that it was impossible for him to accomplish his purpose of ravishing her. The fact that he failed in his attempt is no defence. The instructions were right.
¶2Exceptions overruled.