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75 Cal. 323

People v. Snyder

California Supreme Court

Decided March 21, 1888

California Supreme Court · decided 1888-03-21

<p>Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of the city and county of San Francisco, and from an order refusing a new trial.</p> <p>The facts are stated in the opinion of the court. John B. Whaley, for Appellant.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““This contention is that, while the information charges the crime to have been committed by force, violence, etc., the • proof shows that it was committed, if at all, by means of an intoxicating or narcotic substance; administered to the prosecuting witness by the accused, an,(I that under section 261 of the Penal Code an information charging the crime to have been committed by force cannot be supported by proofs showing it to have been committed by fraud or artifice. The common-law definition of rape was ‘the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will.’ 4 Bla. Com. 210. And the indictment was substantially in the form of the information in the case at bar. And through decisions made from time to time, it gradually came to be the settled law, although there are cases to the contrary, that under such an indictment it was competent and sufficient to prove that the act charged was committed upon a child of tender years, incapable of consent; upon a lunatic or insane woman; by intimidation; when the woman was unconscious of the nature of the act; by the administration of intoxicating or, narcotic substances; by false personation of a husband, etc. The criminal law of this state followed the common-law definition of the crime down to the adoption of the Codes. Hittel’s Gen. Laws, sec. 1449. Section 261 of the Penal Code commences as follows: ‘Rape is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a female not the wife of the perpetrator, under either of the followin”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 13 Okla. Crim. 643 - Gracy v. State, 2 Cal. 5th 349 - People v. White

“'by force, violence and against her will and resistance,'”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 2 Cal. 5th 349 - People v. White

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1888-03-21

How this case has been cited

Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently January 2017 · most notably 42 Cal. 3d 284 - People v. Barnes (1986), 48 Cal. 2d 394 - People v. Marshall (1957)

28 state decisions

6018881890190019101920193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

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 →

McFarland, J.

¶1— The information charges the appellant with the crime of rape, and the jury found him guilty. The charging language of the information, after proper averments of time, place, etc., is that the defendant, “with force and arms in and upon one Louisa Bell, a female over the age of ten years, who was not then and there the wife of the said John H. Snyder, violently and feloniously did make an assault, and her, the said Louisa Bell, then and there, to wit, on the day and year last aforesaid, feloniously did ravish and carnally know and accomplish with her an act of sexual intercourse by force, violence, and against her will and resistance, contrary to the form,” etc. And the main contention of appellant is that there was a fatal variance between the information and the proofs.

¶2This contention is, that while the information charges *324the crime to have been committed by force, violence, etc., the proof shows that it was committed (if at all) by means of an intoxicating or narcotic substance, administered to the prosecuting witness by the accused; and that under section 261 of the Penal Code, an information charging the crime to have been committed by force cannot be supported by proof showing it to have been committed by fraud or artifice.

¶3The common-law definition of rape was “the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will.” (4 Bla. Com. 210.) And the indictment was substantially in the form of the information in the case at bar. And through decisions made from time to time, it gradually came to be the settled law (although there are cases to the contrary) that under such an indictment it was competent and sufiicient to prove that the act charged was committed upon a child of tender years incapable of consent; upon a lunatic or insane woman; by intimidation; when the woman was unconscious of the nature of the act; by the administration of intoxicating or narcotic substances; by false personation of a husband, etc. The criminal law of this state followed the common-law definition of the crime down to the adoption of the codes. (Hittell’s Gen. Laws, sec. 1449.)

¶4Section 261 of the Penal Code commences as follows:—

¶5“Rape is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a female not the wife of the perpetrator, under either of the following circumstances.” Then follow six subdivisions, which recite substantially the things which (as above briefly indicated), could be proven under the general common-law indictment. And the position taken by appellant really is that the indictment and the proof must follow and be confined to one of the six subdivisions of the section.

¶6We think the true construction of section 261 to be" that thereby the legislature meant merely to put beyond doubt the rule that on an information for rape the *325things mentioned in the subdivisions could be proven, and would establish the crime. It is not intended to alter •or establish a rule of pleading; or to create six different kinds of crime. How, as before the adoption of- the code, under an indictment similar to the information in this case, any of the matters mentioned in section 261 may be proved. They are included in the words “ by force and violence, and against her will,” and “did feloniously ravish,” as fully now as they were then.

¶72. The court properly allowed evidence of the fact that the injured party made complaint of the injury while it was recent, and the point that evidence should not have been- admitted shpwing that she named the defendant in her complaint has no basis in the record.

¶83. We cannot say that the evidence did not warrant the verdict.

¶9There are no other points which require special notice. Judgment and order denying new trial affirmed.

¶10Paterson, J., McKinstry, J., Sharpstein, J., Searls, O. J., Temple, J., and Thornton, J., concurred.

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