Chatman v. State

Ike Chatman was found guilty by a jury in the Circuit Court of Adams County of the forcible rape of Mahalia Brown. They certified their inability to agree upon his punishment, but also recommended mercy. From the judgment, sentencing him to life imprisonment in the state penitentiary, Chatman appealed.

Mahalia was thirty-two years of age. She had two sons, Frank and Foster Garner by her first “common-law husband”, as she designated him, and another son, J. W. Brown, by her second “common-law” husband. She explained that the latter’s name was like that because she was not married at the time.…