Zemavasky

The appellant was convicted of statutory-rape allegedly perpetrated upon his seventeen-year-old stepdaughter. Upon this appeal from the judgment and order denying a new trial he contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict; that the trial court committed prejudicial error in certain rulings on the admissibility of evidence and in the giving and refusing of instructions; and that the district attorney was guilty of prejudicial misconduct. The reply brief filed by the attorney general, when the cause was pending before the District Court of Appeal, merely served to accentuate the appellant’s contentions. It submitted the case without argument, declaring that “it appears that the evidence against appellant was not overly credible.” However, the District Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment of conviction, one justice dissenting. Thereafter, upon petition, a hearing was granted in this court. Heartened apparently by the majority decision of the appellate court, the Attorney General has since filed in this court a brief in which he now vigorously challenges appellant’s contentions and in which it is argued that the record contains adequate substantial and…