State v. Comeaux

[1] The indictment in this case reads:

“That one Alcide Comeaux, at the parish aforesaid, on or about the 1st day of May, A. D. 1917, did unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously make an assault upon one Mabel Besard, a female, with the intent in so doing, then and there, unlawfully, feloniously, forcibly, and against the will and consent of the said Mabel Besard, to ravish and carnally know.”

This indictment is fatally defective in that it does not charge with certainty whom it was the accused intended to ravish and carnally know. Very true, it gives rise to a strong inference that Mabel Besard…