Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

94 Ala. 97

Owens & Beaty v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1891

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1891-11-15

From the Circuit Court of Escambia. Tried before the Hon. John P. Hubbard. This was a prosecution against Joe Owens and Prudence Beaty for living together in a state of adultery or fornication, was commenced in the County Court, on the 12th November, 1891, and transferred to the Circuit Court for a trial by jury. In that court, the defendants were jointly tried, issue being joined on the plea of not guilty, and were convicted.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The defendants, Joe Owens and Prudence Beatty, were convicted on the charge of living together in a state of adultery or fornication. The cohabitation was not denied, but the defendants claimed that they had been duly married.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including 62 Okla. Crim. 1 - Holz v. State

Relies on Williams v. State · Beggs v. State · Alsabrooks v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1891-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently April 1949

5 state decisions

20189119001910192019301940decided

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 →

WALKER, J.

¶1— The defendants, Joe Owens and Prudence Beaty, were convicted on the charge of living together in a state of adultery or fornication. The cohabitation was not denied, but the defendants claimed that they had been duly married. There was evidence tending to show that, at the time of their alleged marriage, the female defendant was the wife of one Beaty. Evidence was admitted, without objection, to show that the defendant Prudence and the man Beaty lived in the same house as husband and wife, treated each other as husband and wife, and so called each other. Against the objection of the defendants, a witness was permitted to state that, while the defendant Prudence and the man Beaty lived together, a child wdio lived with them called the man Beaty father, and that the man Beaty called the defendant Prudence his wife. This evidence was admissible against the-defendant Prudence. Marriage may be proved by the admissions and declarations of the parties; and the man’s recognition of himself as the parent of the woman’s child, and the fact that he allows the child to call him father, are circumstances tending to show marriage.— Williams v. State, 54 Ala. 131; Green v. State, 59 Ala. 69; 2 Greenleaf on Evidence,. § 462. This evidence being admissible against one of the defendants, the other defendant was not entitled to have it entirely excluded. The remedy of the defendant Owens, to prevent the use of this evidence against him, was to ask instructions limiting its effect, so as to confine its influence to his co-defendant, against whom alone it was admissible.— Williams v. State, 81 Ala. 1 ; Alsobrooks v. State, 52 Ala. 24.

¶2The offense of bigamy is complete when the second marriage is complete, without proof of subsequent cohabitation. — Beggs v. The State, 55 Ala. 108. The offense of adultery is not necessarily involved in bigamy, and there may be a prosecution for living together in a state of adultery, although the *100parties may also be guilty of bigamy. There was no error in the charge of the court on this subject.

¶3The first charge requested by the defendants was properly refused. There was evidence tending to show.that they lived together in a state of fornication before their alleged marriage. It was not necessary to prove adultery to support the indictment. If there had been no evidence that the defendants cohabited together before formal marriage, it would have been .necessary to show the invalidity of that marriage.

¶4If the defendant Prudence and the man Beaty were in fact ■¡married, the understanding of the defendants to the contrary would not relieve their cohabitation of its adulterous character. 'This consideration discloses the incorrectness of the second charge requested by the defendants.

¶5Aifirmed.

/94/ala/97 · .json · Public domain