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181 Ind. 349

Weidenhammer v. State

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided December 10, 1918

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1918-12-10

<p>1. Criminal Daw. — Appeal.—Presenting Questions for Review.— Ruling on Motion for Peremptory Instruction. — The ruling on a motion for a peremptory instruction to return a verdict of acquittal cannot be made the basis of an independent assigment of error on appeal, but should be presented as ground for a new trial, p. 350.</p> <p>2. Appeal.— Questions Revi&wa'ble.— Briefs.— Sufficiency. — Appellant’s brief, containing under “points and authorities” many abstract statements of law and citations of authorities without indicating what relation or bearing any of them have to the questions attempted to be presented, and without attempting to fit any of them to any ruling of the trial court, does not comply with clause 5 of Rule 22 and is therefore insufficient to present any question for review, p. 350.</p> <p>8. Adultery. — Evidence.—Sufficiency.—Positive proof is not essential, to a conviction for adultery, but the evidence is sufficient if it establishes facts and circumstances from which guilt may be inferred, and which will satisfy a rational and just man beyond a reasonable doubt, p. 351.</p> <p>4. Adultery.— Evidence.— Qircumsta/nces.— Sufficiency. — The test of the sufficiency of circumstances to support a verdict of guilty in a prosecution for adultery is, that the facts which the jury accepted as proved can be reasonably accounted for on no other hypothesis than the defendant’s guilt, that with the theory of his guilt they are harmonious and consistent, and that they point to it so clearly and distinctly as to satisfy the jury of it beyond a Reasonable doubt, .p. 351.</p>

Relies on Boland v. Claudel

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1918-12-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently May 1990

14 state decisions

100191819201930194019501960197019801990decided

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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¶1*351Opinion on Petition for Rehearing.

Cox, J.

¶2While conceding the failure of the brief for appellant to comply with the rules in the particular pointed out in the opinion of the court, counsel for appellant earnestly insists that the brief shows a good faith endeavor to present to this court the contention that the evidence was insufficient in law and fact to sustain appellant’s conviction. Yielding to the respectful importunity now made to decide this question, we have given it full consideration. No claim is made that the evidence failed to reach that degree of certainty necessary to sustain a conviction except on the element of sexual commerce. As to this the evidence of the State was circumstantial. Appellant introduced no evidence at all, being content to rest his defense on the alleged failure of the State’s evidence in the particular stated.

¶33.

¶4From the nature of the offense it is commonly impossible to produce direct proof of sexual acts between the parties, hence the rule that direct, positive proof is not essential to conviction. It is sufficient if the evidence establishes facts and circumstances from which guilt may be inferred, and which will satisfy a rational and just man beyond a reasonable doubt. 1 Ency. Evidence 628; 2 Wharton, Crim. Ev. (10th ed.) 1668; Underhill, Crim. Ev. §381. In 1 Cyc. 963, it is said: “In almost every case of adultery the fact of carnal intercourse is inferred by circumstances; but the circumstances upon which a conviction is sought must be such as would lead the guarded discretion of a reasonable and just man to the conclusion that the offense had been committed, and where the circumstances are merely incriminating, the weight of the evidence should be left to the jury.”

¶54.

¶6The test of the sufficiency of circumstances which usually obtains is, that the facts which the jury accepts as proved can be reasonably accounted for on no other hypothesis than the defendant’s guilt, that with the *352theory of his guilt they are harmonious and consistent and that they point to it so clearly and distinctly as to satisfy the jury of it beyond a reasonable doubt. 2 Bishop, New Crim. Proc. (2d ed.) §§1073-1079.

¶7It is enough to say, without reviewing the evidence in this case at length, that, measuring it by the rules stated, it warranted the jury in finding appellant guilty as charged. The facts proven without conflict in the testimony show either directly or inferentially, to the exclusion of any other reasonable conclusion, that appellant seduced the wife of another from him and his home and openly lived with her in an adulterous relation.

¶8Petition overruled.

¶9Note. — Reported in 103 N. E. 413; 104 N. E. 577. Generally as to circumstantial evidence, see 62 Am. Dec. 179; 97 Am. St. 771.

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