Warner

Appeal by defendant from a judgment convicting him of rape, and an order denying him a new trial.

Defendant took the witness stand in his own behalf, confining his testimony, on his direct examination, to a denial of the commission of the offense, a statement of his version"of the occurrences on the night of the alleged assault, which was claimed to have occurred in his own house, and as to certain other facts occurring before arrest. On cross-examination, the prosecution was permitted, against defendant’s repeated and strenuous objection that the matter was incompetent and not in cross-examination, to interrogate and examine him at length as to certain communications by letter-made by him to his wife after his arrest, relating to the charge against him, and which it is conceded bore materially on the question of guilt, but which communications had in no way been referred to by him on his direct examination. It is contended that this action of the court constituted material error tending to de *639 fendant’s prejudice, which requires a reversal, and this contention must unquestionably be sustained.

Conceding that the statements inquired into had a tendency to contradict…