State v. Washington

The opinion of the court was delivered by

DeBlanc, J.

Defendants were indicted for and convicted of rape, a crime — -the legal price of which should ever be the life of the perpetrator. The jurors by whom they were tried, returned against them the qualified verdict of “guilty, without capital punishment,” If guilty, they were fortunate indeed that a too merciful qualification was attached to the verdict.

During the trial in the lower court, their counsel — in addressing the jury — asserted that one of the State witnesses had testified that the prosecutrix had no other mark of violence on her…