Commonwealth v. McCarty

Decided November 30, 1895

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1895-11-30

<p>Indictment for Intent to Ravish — Simple Assault.</p> <p>Under an indictment alleging that A. and B. “ in and upon one C. . . . violently and feloniously did make an assault, with intent her, the said C., . . . then and there, by force and against her will, violently and feloniously to ravish and carnally know/’ it is competent for the jury to find them guilty of a simple assault, whether the intent to ravish is well alleged or not.</p>

Relies on Commonwealth v. Dean · Commonwealth v. Thompson · Commonwealth v. Kennedy

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1895-11-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1973

3 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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Field, C. J.

¶1Whether the intent is well alleged or not, the indictment could not be quashed, and it was competent for the jury, under the indictment, to find the defendants guilty of a simple assault. Commonwealth v. Fischblatt, 4 Met. 354. Commonwealth v. Dean, 109 Mass. 349. Commonwealth v. Thompson, 116 Mass. 346. Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 131 Mass. 584.

¶2We are inclined to think that the intent to ravish Catherine Webb is well alleged, whether the intent was that only one of the defendants should ravish her, or that all should in succession, although it is not necessary to decide this. Commonwealth v. Fogerty, 8 Gray, 489, 491. Pub. Sts. c. 210, § 3. State v. Comstock, 46 Iowa, 265. 1 Russ. Crimes, (9th Am. ed.) 920. Dennis v. State, 5 Ark. 230. Regina v. Crisham, C. & M. 187.

¶3 Exceptions overruled.