People v. Gammage

Opinion

ARABIAN, J.

Lord Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench from 1671 to 1676, once observed: “It is true rape is a most detestable *695crime, and therefore ought severely and impartially to be punished with death; but it must be remembered, that it is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent” (1 Hale, The History of the Pleas of the Crown (1st Am. ed. 1847) p. 634.)1

These “musings were introduced somewhat obliquely into the law of California by People v. Benson [(1856)] 6 Cal. 221 . . . .”…