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9 Tex. Ct. App. 160

Wells v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas

Decided July 1, 1880

Court of Appeals of Texas · decided 1880-07-01

<p>Fornication—Evidence. — In a trial for fornication, as defined by the Revised Penal Code, art. 337, it is incumbent on the State to prove that the male and female fornicators were both unmarried when they committed the offence.</p>

Decided 1880-07-01

White, P. J.

¶1“Fornication is the living together and carnal intercourse with each other, or habitual carnal intercourse with each other without living together, of a man and woman, both being unmarried.”

¶2It was under this statute that the appellants were tried and convicted. The evidence fails to make out the case. It is neither proven that either or both the parties were unmarried, nor that that they were not husband and wife and married to each other, when the State’s witness saw them for months occupying the same room. To make out the case, the State should have shown that the parties, in the language of the statute, were “ both unmarried.”

¶3The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

¶4Reversed and remanded.

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