State v. Johnson

Stukes, Chief Justice.

Upon an indictment containing three counts, (1) rape, (2) assault with intent to ravish, and (3) assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, appellant was convicted of assault with intent to ravish and sentenced to death. Sec. 16-72, Code of 1952.

He is a young Negro man, twenty-nine years old, and the prosecutrix a white spinster of fifty-two. Their rural homes are separated by about five hundred yards of open field. Hers is her life-long home, in which she occupies a rear apartment that opens on a back porch. It is separated by a breezeway from the living…