Woodley

Defendant was convicted under the charge of having placed and permitted, his wife, known as Pearl White, to remain in a house of prostitution and he was sentenced to a term of five years in the penitentiary. It is not disputed that an essential element of the crime and necessary to be shown by the people beyond a reasonable doubt is that said female was in contemplation of law the wife of defendant, that they were, in other words, the parties to a valid marriage contract. (People v. Mock Yick Gar, 14 Cal. App. 334 , [ 111 Pac. 1039 ].) As to this the people made out a sufficient case but defendant contended that the woman was not his wife as that term is used in the law, that the apparent marriage was in fact entirely void and therefore that the prosecution, brought as it was under section 266 of the Penal Code, must fail. It appeared that the marriage ceremony between defendant and the said Pearl White was performed, in the state of Oregon, on April 28, 1905. The parties were then residents of the state of Washington. Prior to said purported marriage appellant had been married to one Josephine Woodley, who is still living, and he was granted a decree of divorce from her by the…