Bray v. United States
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Hearing on an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia convicting him of seduction and overruling his motion for new trial.
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Hearing on an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia convicting him of seduction and overruling his motion for new trial. The Court in the opinion stated the facts as follows: Martin H. Bray appeals from a conviction under the third count of an indictment which charges that in February, 1910, in the District of Columbia, the defendant unlawfully, and feloniously did seduce and carnally know, out of wedlock, one Alberta W. Sadler, she being at the time a female of previous ■chaste character, and between the ages of sixteen and twenty-■one…
1Opinion of the CourtChief Justice Shepard
1. The first question to be considered arises on the conten-. lion that the marriage of the defendant to the prosecuting witness was a condonation of the offense, and had the legal effect fo abate the action.
The statutes of many of the states provide that the marriage, -or bona fide offer of marriage, by the accused to the injured female at any time before conviction, shall have the effect to end the prosecution; but none has come under observation that makes the marriage, after conviction, a bar to sentence. The *603District Code has no provision on the subject. It defines the offense as follows…
2Cases cited15 opinions
- Boyce v. . People of the State of New YorkNew York Court of Appeals · 1873
- People v. . NelsonNew York Court of Appeals · 1897
- Mills v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1895
- State v. PrimmSupreme Court of Missouri · 1889
- Washington v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1905
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