Sumpter v. State

Appellant was convicted after jury trial of living in a house of ill fame.1 On appeal, this conviction was reversed because the record contained “. . . no direct evidence of appellant’s sex. . . .” Sumpter v. State, (1973) Ind. App., 296 N.E.2d 131, 133. We accepted the state’s petition to transfer the matter to this Court and modified the Indiana common law rule on proof of sex to provide that trial courts may take judicial notice of a defendant’s sex. Sumpter v. State, (1974) 261 Ind. 471, 306 N.E.2d 95. The effect of such notice is the creation of a rebuttable presumption sufficient to…