Green v. State
Mississippi Supreme Court
Trom the circuit court of Copiah county. Hon. J. B. Chrisman, Judge. The appellant has been, convicted of assault, with intent to commit rape. The prosecutrix testified that she was riding in the daytime alone and on horse-back along the public road, about two miles from the town of Hazlehurst, when reaching a place where the public road crosses the railroad, she noticed a negro man standing on the crossing.
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Trom the circuit court of Copiah county. Hon. J. B. Chrisman, Judge. The appellant has been, convicted of assault, with intent to commit rape. The prosecutrix testified that she was riding in the daytime alone and on horse-back along the public road, about two miles from the town of Hazlehurst, when reaching a place where the public road crosses the railroad, she noticed a negro man standing on the crossing. Hearing a train approaching, she stopped and turned the horse’s head towards the man, thinking, as she says, that he could assist her if the train frightened her horse. After riding two…
1Opinion of the CourtCooper, J.
The evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of the jury. We may conjecture the purpose of the defendant to have been to commit a rape, but, on the facts disclosed, it is conjecture only, and not an inference reasonably drawn from the evidence. The probabilities may be greater that a rape was intended rather than robbery or murder, but mere probability of guilt of a particular crime, and that, too, springing more from instinct than from proved facts, cannot support a verdict of guilty.
There is great danger of improper convictions in cases of this character,, and, while the court should…
2Cited by12 opinions
- Dorsey v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1899
- Fondren, Alias Taylor v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1965
- Watson v. NixDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa · 1982
- State v. LindseyMississippi Supreme Court · 1947
- Brooks v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1978
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