Opinion
No. 3106.
Decided April 29, 1914. Rehearing denied May 27, 1914.
Rape — Excessive Punishment — Sufficiency of the Evidence.
Where, upon trial of rape, the punishment is within the limit fixed by the Legislature, the same is not excessive, and the evidence being sufficient to sustain the conviction, there is no reversible error.
Appeal from the District Court of Jones. Tried below before the Hon. Jno. B. Thomas.
Appeal from a conviction of rape; penalty, nine years imprisonment in the penitentiary.
The opinion states the case.
Cunningham Oliver, for appellant. — On question of insufficiency of the evidence: Key v. State, 65 S.W. Rep., 517; Dusek v. State, 48 Tex.Crim. Rep..
C.E. Lane, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.
Appellant was convicted of statutory rape, and his punishment assessed at nine years confinement in the State penitentiary.
There are no bills of exception in the record in regard to the introduction of testimony, and the only grounds in the motion allege the insufficiency of the testimony, and that the punishment is excessive. The punishment is within the limits fixed by the Legislature for this character of offense, and is, therefore, not excessive. It appears that Rosa Lee Finch is certainly under the age of fifteen years, and she swears positively to an act of intercourse. Appellant is a grown man, and under such circumstances, if the jury believed the testimony offered in behalf of the State, as they evidently did, we are not surprised at the punishment inflicted.
The judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
[Rehearing denied May 27, 1914. — Reporter.]