State v. Smith

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Manning, O. J.

The defendant was convicted under an indictment for incest, and was sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for life.

The counsel for the prisoner asked the court to charge the jury, that the. crime of incest, not being defined by the criminal statutes of Louisiana, must bo defined and construed according to the common law of England as it existed at and previous to the enactment of the Act of 1805, and that as incest was not a crime at common law, or defined thereunder in 1805 and previously, no conviction could be had under the statutes…