Parnell v. State

The defendant was indicted for the offense of bigamy. “On the trial it was proved that at the time of his second marriage he had been absent from his wife for a period of less than five years. In his statement he contended that he had received a letter informing him of her desperate illness, and that a letter written by him in which he made inquiry as to the result of that illness had not been answered, and he had supposed her dead. He requested the court to instruct the jury that should they believe he honestly thought his. wife was dead at the time he contracted the second marriage, they…