Clements v. State

1. Bill of Exceptions.—A bill of exceptions to the admission of testimony should state the facts admitted which were objected to and complained of; and is too indefinite if it refers generally to the admission of evidence upon a given point. 2. Incest—Evidence of Cruel Treatment.—On a trial of a father for incest with his daughter, evidence of cruel conduct by the father towards his daughter for the purpose of subduing and forcing her to submit to his embraces, is admissible against him.

Appeal from the District Court of Lamar. Tried below before Hon. ■ B. D. McClellan. Appellant was indicted for incest with his daughter, Lucinda Clements, and at the trial was convicted, with punishment assessed at ten years in the penitentiary. The prosecutrix, Lucinda Clements, testified to her father’s efforts to have carnal intercourse with her for several years before he accomplished his purpose. That he succeeded in accomplishing his desires and forced her to submit to him in the cornfield, when she was 16 years of age. That he threatened to kill her and the whole family if she told it. That she told her mother, and that when her mother took her father to task about it he did not deny it, but said that she (Lucinda) was as much to blame as he was. That afterwards he treated her most cruelly, and often whipped her with a horsewhip because she would not again submit to carnal intercourse with him. She was corroborated by other witnesses as to his cruel treatment, and defendant, as a witness on the trial, testified, that he had often whipped her with a horsewhip. He testified that he had never had intercourse with Lucinda’s mother until after they were married, and that Lucinda was born six months after his marriage with her mother. He denied ever having had carnal intercourse with Lucinda. There was other evidence in the case tending strongly to corroborate the testimony of Lucinda as to the carnal intercourse with her.