Strawderman v. Commonwealth

Strawderman was convicted of the rape of Mary Elizabeth Miller, a female child under the age of sixteen years. Code, § 18-54. The jury fixed his punishment at forty years in the penitentiary. A motion to set aside the verdict was overruled, judgment entered, and the accused sentenced in conformity with the verdict. We granted him a writ of error.

The narrative statement of the testimony of the witnesses for the Commonwealth (no evidence being introduced on behalf of the accused) discloses that on Christmas Day, 1957, Strawderman, a nephew of Clifton Miller, visited the Miller home, arriving…